It was a dream in which people could see the future
and were happy knowing what was in store,
good weather, hard times, beautiful lovers, all life
to come —- until one day all anyone could see
was the end of time, beyond which there were
no vacations at the shore, clothing that fit,
appointments for pet grooming, wars, weddings —-
just nothing. Everyone was distressed
until they discovered they could live backward in time,
back through all the small and tedious days
that lay unremembered behind them,
the waits for a bus, warm Spring afternoons in a schoolroom,
drives through Kansas, queue for the draft physical,
and thus never have to go over into that blank white
absolute nothing beyond the very last event in history,
which was just some kid closing his family
refrigerator door with his butt, hands full of snacks.
