Driving Poem by Doug Lane

I'll remember something
from the distant past
as a mortal betrayal

and then again
I'll remember it
in a neutral light,

simply as something
that happened,
not as something

that happened
to me
that shouldn't

have happened,
that I
didn't deserve.

So my question is,
should I cling
to that feeling of betrayal,

to that way
of looking
at my past

as if I have been
unforgivably
wronged?

Should I cling
to that delicious feeling
of having been wronged,

of being in the right,
of being innocent,
even if that feeling

is wearing out
as the wrongs
shrink smaller and smaller

in my
rearview
mirror?

And if I do
let it go,
do stop clinging,

do I irretrievably
betray
myself?