When you return to reread this poem,

This poem will be exactly the same as it is now.

Even if you carry this poem to the moon

Where there is no atmosphere to comfort you

This poem will be exactly the same as it is now.

If  you read this poem aloud no one will hear you.

You, on the other hand, are not the same person

You were the day before, nor the day after.

Your thoughts are filtered thru memories

Staining your notion of the future.

There will be days when you believe

That you have read this poem years ago,

But it did not change your life.

Set the poem aside & go to the movies.

Watch  Groundhog Day day after day 

After day after day, over & over.

You return home, & this poem is waiting

This poem will be exactly the same as it is now.

Louis Phillips’ recent poetry publications include The Domain of Silence, The Domain of Absence: New and Selected Poems (Pleasure Boat Studio, 2015), The Domain of Small Mercies: New & Selected Poems ], Volume 2 (Pleasure Boat Studio, 2017), How Wide the Meadow (World Audience Publishers, 2019).