Now and Then
Circumstance, as usual, conducted
His affairs, flourishing life's ornaments.
So now, grown old, he finds himself, as years
Before, alone at times, and finds as well
He thinks as then, and sees how that is good.
He has not strayed too far: Usual birds
And garden, standard house plants, strolls still grand,
Though slower. God's about, and always has
Been. So he pays scant heed to time and deed
Once over. Here and now is where he means
To be, though here and now just now
Only draw him back, suspending tense,
Elsewhere and here conjoined in palimpsest —
Faded parchment, layered script — time in between
So long ago and now dissolving into somewhere
Once before, as if his mother were nearby,
Attaching her heart to flowers, vines, and thorns,
Allowing him to be what he's become.
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