Persistence

I know why the universe does not distinguish the days
Any more than we would a grain of sugar in a jar,
I have dreamt and in that dream I awoke
To the language of things I could not understand
I heard in its muffled voice, an infinite joke
As I smelt the sea thousands of miles inland.
I slept and in that sleep I saw me, as I’d once been:
Transformed from the dead, and free from transgression
I swam garlanded in the sea; renewed by those briny waves,
The days had stretched forever along the coast
But I did not know then that nothing would last.
How every atom of me would pass on through a new host
And that only dreams and memories would transport me
Back to the tang of the sea, and the scent of blossom.
I think I understand now the reticence of the stars
To tell not of a future but reflect only their past.