ANTICIPATING YESTERDAY, REMEMBERING TOMORROW

A white stern-wheeler slides

downriver for Ohio.

Its paddles

plow the river rough until

they seem to falter and reverse.

I’ve seen the same illusion

in the backward-spinning tires

of a car accelerating forward,

props revolving clockwise

counterclockwise, trains departing

from a town departing from a train

departing.

To break the spell,

I focus on the stern-wheel’s hub

and slide into a memory of Paris…

At Notre Dame a life

I seemed to know preceded me.

On Montparnasse I told myself

I must have come that way

before I came that way.

No matter where I walked,

I kept retreating into what

came next.

Even the Seine

deceived me with its waves blown

east, its current coasting west…