A Thousand Pasts

She walked out into
the cold light of her own future
quivering;

half-present
because hard lessons
from her thousand pasts
gave no indication
of any future destination;

therefore, she stalled
at the intersection
strung out on reality
hoping to mold
a destiny
from a too-crowded
yesterday,

one jumbled up with faded significances
leaving her with
obfuscations rambling within her thousand-fold memories,
which taken together, subdued her consciousness
leaving her
devoid of intent
or direction
and meaning.

'I have seen' she said
'too much TV;
too many versions of the truth;
experienced too many versions of my self
to see or forge
a clear path
in my future tense.'

'The Past' she said 'is best lived
in the real world
because if I am swamped by
multitudes of pseudo life experiences
these will not necessarily lead
anywhere
and there is born future confusion
and ended momentum
and I, I see, am left with only
Media, Computer and TV memories
and crippling apathy.'

'Life is best led' she said sadly;
not viewed or merely read;
and how much of what I currently
am
is derived of such? '

And yet
these thousand points
are mine
and part of me;
how to re-assemble them
into coherency-
my generations reveille
and hard task
to achieve.

poem by Lonnie Hicks
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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