Regret

Every notion you do not follow,

Even the ones thrown away

With laughter,

Return later in the form of regret.

Like the dawn,

Biting a wound into the flesh of night

The golden light filches the once-worshipped

Augury of the stars,

The illusion drops

Revealing trees, lamp posts, cars.

You did not follow the stars long enough.

You did not trace your fatalistic path

To a single one.

Now you are exposed by the sun,

That eternal fate you swore against

So long ago.

Your vision, the burden,

Awakening you, in deference, to your life.

Too much to be done—

The stars, not even a memory.

Every breath gilded with an untraceable,

Unquenchable song.

In this vigilant decay of being,

Memory grows

Like a forest whose initial seed

We still search for.

But the cycle does not wait

Even for our breath.

Regret grows out of regret,

Just as our actions proceed

Forever into mystery.