Take your chances on the battlefield.
It looks one way.
Marching forward.
Step for step.
Move for move.
Into the setting sun.
Building fences.
Only forward.
Into dusk.
Into dust.
Where does the past live if not in memory...
Does it even exist any longer...
Did it really even happen at all...
Perhaps, as the dog-faced boy bagging groceries at the market told you, there is only one day in life. "There is no yesterday and there is no tomorrow. There is only today."
You asked him to please be gentle with your eggs.
It all looks so much tastier in retrospect. Parties become more vibrant. Love affairs so much more passionate. Friends were more dependable. Chocolate was a lot chunkier. That person you turned down for sexual party favors in the back of your father's Ford Pinto was a lot less chunky. Lets get down on all fours and talk about hindsight. Objects in the rear view mirror become more presentable through the power of reflection. This is the nowhere zone. Everything is up for re-interpretation. Remember how Terry walked out on you after you became convinced this was The One, the big bang that would become your eternal flame? Nowadays you remember how Terry snored and rarely brushed those teeth.
Ah, to once again be young and in love.
Looking back is like flipping through the pages of a tear stained magazine and not remembering how the pages got that way. How many times are you the one who was wrong in the stories of past exploits you tell your new friends? Bringing the giant bong into Mrs. Potter's house when you were taking care of her cat wasn't your idea. Yes, it was a mistake, and you can laugh about it now, but these days the story shifts blame over to "those guys." The present is a fun time to play with the past, because "those guys" never have to take the stand. They don't really even have to have names. And no one ever has to know about the time you danced around naked listening to Madonna singing "Borderline" but the story is funny enough to assign it to another person. "You wouldn't believe what I caught my cousin doing once..." You are guilty and you know it, but the court is out of session and trapped forever in the past.
Your arms can only stay open for so long before they wither and drop to your side. The clouds of consciousness converge and you wake-up with a hangover tempered by sobriety. You pull aside the sheets and step into the new day. It begins again and there are more memories to catalog. More memories that look better in retrospect.
Take your chances with the road ahead.
It rolls forward ever onward.
Walk it until you're dead.
Step for step.
Move for move.
Tomorrow becomes today.
Ahead of memory.
The past stays where it is.
Ghosts can haunt you.
And they probably will.