The Reflection Poem by Boston Kelley

Once has the Earth moved around that bright star
that casts a light for our world.
Once has a man aged once more and the year he
has spent is now open before him.
An open book is my previous age to me now as I see
all that I have wrought.
Oh, how defeated I once was! A wretched, lost soul
was I!
Defeat after defeat, mistake after mistake, failure after
failure does my memory bring to the mind.
How can I redeem my past? What wounds could I still
mend? Is there hope for such a painful year?
I walk, yet don't know where I'm going; I think, yet confusion
still resides in my mind; I reach out, yet no one is
present; I search, yet find nothingness.
What pleasure could this life bring? What could outweigh
so many failures?
If only the flow of time could reverse would I find appeasement for this wistful remembrance.
A past I then could right; failures I then could stop and
create a better present.
The deadline approaches before it is too late and I look
ahead with agony. Time works against me to remind me
of my awful shortcomings.
I cannot go on farther if nothing is promising; my feet do
not permit a path toward hopelessness.
Should I find hope, my feet will gladly tread on lest they break
in rebellion against me.