For a moment he was given his future:
a prophetic pulse racing to the horizon
of his life and washing it stark and certain,
the glacier of days crisp with everything
he would ever achieve, the pitiful lies he
would tell his wife, his son’s estrangement,
the shape of his death entombed in the future.
He became known for decisiveness, for clear
thinking and shrewd investments, for a cavalier
approach to his own safety, dismissive and
inconsiderate of others. He was never surprised.
There was no change. Doubt became intolerable.
When he looked back, he could see
the past billowing behind him, distant and
shapeless. He no longer understood any of it.
