My name: past actions
Present choices, future dreams
The past never past

The shadows I have cast upon the earth
The sandy tracks smoothed over by the sea
The echoes that refuse my voice permanence
The blood I left on the side of that gulf coast highway
The panicked pleasures I surrendered in secret
The mirrors I buried with family members
Most meaningful evidences of my existence have melted before my eyes.

And yet

The straw I did not ask for
The house full of items that I did
The exhaust from moves across the continent and back again
The single use midweek meal containers
The silent electronic oil stain of restless finger tips
The climate controlled microcosm’s unpaid bill
Most artifacts of myself are discarded as rubbish every Tuesday morning.

This is a contingent breath
This is a provisional pulse
This is a tentative thought

And yet

This is a fossilizing footstep
This is an artifact unworthy of search
This is a stain the ocean cannot grind down

To be human is to stretch beyond the facts of one’s existence.