Now, or is it then

Forever is composed of nows

Dickinson wrote, with more elliptical punctuation

but still

Tomorrow we will head West

to the coast

watching for the real Oregon

amidst the trees and sky and sea

Now, or is it then

I’ll see the Haystack Rock everyone talks of

for the first time since I was 7

small and not yet lapsed

a Catholic boy watching the giant ocean

and a towering rock, a home for puffins

Photo by Andrew Wright on Unsplash

how many nows have gathered

since that first visit

and what have they become