I already know too much of the future the past
How winter will pass after it has slowly arrived
How the Lions Club’s barbecue in Birmingham
Upon a Labor Day that will never come again tasted
How the pets will die and have died

Of deaths dauntless or cringing
How after long days of comfort bad days will come
How the routines of satisfaction will pall and fail to satisfy
How the striver will succumb at last
How notwithstanding denial youth will be better than age

Of manic sorrow and composèd joy
Of helplessness in the face of catastrophe
Of self-reliance and narcissistic complacency
Of humanitarian virtue and nihilistic contempt
How the mockingbird prophesied horror and degradation

The orange will still express its acid sweetness
The ocean wave its unique recurrence
The larva its unconquerable appetite
The mountain its imperceptible erosion
The poem its teasing incompleteness