Look Back! Poem by Daniel Trevelyn Joseph

Point of attention of audience, public and subordinates
Shifts to rising sun, the present occupant of chair,
And earlier tenants are lightened and go up in balance:
Knowing the law of things full well: this is no surprise.

What earlier sailed majestically like container ship
On the surface of the ocean bearing down the ripples
Now is perched on the slope of an ordinary wave
Like a dingy buffeted, this retired DG of Shipping!

In his own office, he hesitates to go and talk
For fear that the persons now in charge of things
May misunderstand, or just take revenge for
Something which they wanted and didn’t then get.