A Far Country

The past is a far country -
you can't get there by boots or food,
strength or pack,
you can't look back 
because the layers have 
grown about your eyes
and through that deepening
difficult it is to see
a sun that's younger, sharper, less mellow 
than your present one.

You need the gut and heart to foray it -
use pick and shovel, dig it up, examine it:
archaeologist to all you've lost
no finds to win:
a life consigned
a bin of personal time 
lidded, eaten, done.

The future is a new country -
uncharted and not laid waste. 
The path exists you have to trace
and clues are for the finding,
goals to win.  You need only
pack your tools, begin.

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