Looking ahead

How do you ever find out
the truth?
Was it real
or all a lie?
Sometimes the truth of the matter
isn’t so much of what we need to find
out about the past
but moreover
what we need to know
about the future
Choices we make
cannot be unmade
but we can choose to make new ones
in the future based on
what our past reveals.
Hurt can be made
and although it does fade
it lingers to remind us
of the things we have learned
so that we don’t do
the same things
over and over.