Poem

2020: Charles Bernstein, “Before the Promise”

I drew a blank on a torn door
Drew another, then no more
Got stung, pedaled frowns
Knew things was bust
(No way outta town)

Sometimes it done it its way
Then again, harder to say ––
What’s looking up
Decides to knock you down

Before the promise of tomorrow
Tomorrow came 

Morning on this pole
Midnight at the other
Slipping, slapping, sliding
On a cockamamie roll

Yesterday’s dreams dissolve
Into today’s goodbyes
I set out on a camel’s hump
Came back with just the eyes

Before the promise of tomorrow
Tomorrow came 

A farther distance that we go
Within each moment spent
Then ever’s sent by Heaven
Or scaled by human ken

Before the promise of tomorrow
Tomorrow came 

We twist, we turn
Undo ourselves in tripled throws
My goodness, how the time has passed! ––
Let’s get our stuff and beat a path

To what we never knew
Nor will, nor who, nor say

Before the promise of tomorrow
Tomorrow came