Ignore the Portents

Rita Dove caught up with me,
a card-carrying adult,
reprising songs from Fiddler on the Roof,
as I—without realizing it—stopped pretending
and became the person I want to be.

Had I been courting original sin
long enough to lose my soul to a snake?
I reviewed my past
and selected the future
as my focus.

So here, cobbled together
from memory and a new deep love,
is an air of hope
that only comes from decades
of slow, tectonic change.