Today's poem is by Don Bogen

Tense Song
       

Could die can point toward risk, or threat,
or sometimes even mirth.
Emphatic, jutting from the past,
did die always hurts.

Could is hypothetical
and loose, with little set.
Did lays down the one fixed line,
putting doubt to rest.

Did lies under all that's done,
securely anchored there,
but could is always free to raise
hope as well as fear.

We flourished in the realm of could,
adjusting to its twists.
They made it easy to forget
that did exists.

Tweet
Copyright © 2023 Don Bogen All rights reserved
from The Southern Review
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission