good counsel (in seventy-four)

if ever one
was to
know
it was she

in truth
at that time I believed
that she knew
everything

such certainty
is a boon
in troubled times

but she
was long ago
and her fallibility
now seems as clear
in hindsight
as it is distressing

for we need the reassurance
that someone
knows
and can give
guidance

it is hard
to believe
I could ever have been
so naïve
and yet
I clung to her counsel
as though it were
the new gospel
of nineteen seventy-four

only realizing
my error
in nineteen
night-eight

and now . . .

a day will bring
what it must

none of it
better
than what was brought
before

~