The Past

I wanted

the past to go away, I wanted

to leave it, like another country; I wanted

my life to close, and open

like a hinge, like a wing, like the part of the song

     where it falls

down over the rocks: an explosion, a discovery;

     I wanted

to hurry into the work of my life; I wanted to know

whoever I was, I was

alive

for a little while.

~ Mary Oliver, from “Dogfish” in Dream Work