Soldier On

I heard a pompous poet say,

the other day: We face

each other in this place.

Look not at roads ahead,

no past, no future year

bears any thinking of;

be now, live here.

The trouble is that though

you may not wish to know

what you have been (although

you know you really know)

the past will peer at you,

tap on your back to say:

Hey! Scared are you

of the road you trod?

Who said you should

not look before nor after?

Was your life such a disaster?

Would you have gained much more

by opening some other door?

If your reasons for refusing

were of others' choosing,

should you not look into

the future path of others who

depend in part on you?

I will be, now, wrote DHL.

But that's all very well -

what we are is who we were,

especially when admitting how

we bury the future and our past

to live in the here and now.

©Terry Hodgson2026