Palinode

Daryl Hine

Orient yourself in time

Toward the prepossessing dawn.

Disenchanted by the past,

Turn your back forever on

The decadent and splendid West

And all your yesterdays in flame.

Tomorrow is a promised land

Inevitable as success

Following the era you

Wasted in the wilderness.

All the prophecies are true

And their fulfillment is at hand.

Tomorrow seemed a sinecure

Available by force or guile.

After your years of servitude

Endured beside the dirty Nile,

What were you able to secure

But exile, want and solitude?

Disorient yourself away

From the disappointing East.

Forget the fair, unfortunate

Fake embellishments of day,

Its phoney promises. The last

Disaster has not happened yet.