Past, Present, Future Poem by William B. Deutscher

Always at arm's length we get nowhere
And nothing but nothing can shake us free,
The starched formality of our exchange
Leaves us faintly forlorn, wanting
More than what we actually give,
With the fear that this is all we will ever have.

Much less than what we hoped to have;
Our smiling politeness that is nowhere
For us, lacking all that once seemed ours to give -
The vaulting skyward passion free
In a world fulfilled, not wanting,
Glittering coin of joyous exchange.

But reality leaves no room for such exchange
And glad hopes that are more than what we have
Mock our daily routine of wanting
Something we cannot find and which is nowhere,
Taunting us with the lost promise of being free;
We lack all that we once hoped to give.

And it's not enough, what we actually give,
Played out in tired exchange
At a time when we had hoped to be almost free,
Knowing what we would and would not have,
The warm sheltering dream that now nowhere
Can be found and which leaves us wanting.

What is this persistent wanting
That occupies the time we cannot give,
Sobering present tense, our nowhere
That is endured in stalemate; arid exchange
Of all those gifts we once hoped to have,
Back in the moment when love seemed free.

This was mere fancy, our yearning to be free,
But still the past persists in a haze of futile wanting
That lingers in the present as something we cannot have
And which may cost far more than we could ever give,
Although we try in a losing exchange
To find our way out of this sodden nowhere.

Free one day perhaps we might be able to give,
Wanting for nothing and in a fulfillment of exchange
Have all that we now lack in our present, our nowhere.