Recall (poem)

Do you remember yesterday
when you ate the tuna sandwich
with the good potato chips
and drank the best juice you've had
since you left your spouse?

Do you remember yesterday
when you ran at the gym
after squatting a thousand pounds
of bad management
and underpay at the job?

Do you remember yesterday 
when your mother had you
in the Georgia hospital
where they grow switches
from the same tree you handpicked your traditions?

Do you remember yesterday
when your dad was a kid
working on the farm
with pigs and cows
and couldn't milk his father for affection?

Do you remember yesterday
when the people got mad
because the others got selfish
and they both had to learn
how to share the pain?

Do you remember yesterday
when things were okay
to enjoy and embrace
under the sun
before clouds became shadows?

Yesterday is always closer
when tomorrow has everything you desire,
and because of your past,
you find it easy to believe 
one never gets what they want. 

-Calvin W. Pennywell Jr. (2022)