Reconstituting The Past

a love poem
generated by the cynicism in "The Devil's Dictionary" by Ambrose Bierce

You could have is the beginning of a statement that recognizes your past suffering, pain, sorrow,
and mayhem...but with Me there to help you it didn't turn out you had those. That I know of.

You might have is an introduction to almost the same thing, but sounds less definite. Assumes
an alternate past, a possible past much worse since I was not there to help you.

You would not have been able to is the way to begin the next big one. If I started it, the war was already over
before it began. You won.

You would not have been able to is how you start an irrefutable statement about the Omega. The Omega, on
normal, happy days is also known as the conclusion or the end. You are now experiencing the future happy
ending, subsequent to any and all possible pasts. You have me to thank for how things ended.

If you had done this instead("anything I could have done would have been a better idea") is the supposition of
a universally accepted truth. The speaker knows the best previous worlds. But you chose a different road.
You could have listened to me. Then everything would have turned out fine.

You should have is the beginning of an either short or long political history lesson. I would never listen to the rest
unless I were you.

You should have is the preface to a line of reasoning or a way of thinking that insists that you go back into the
past and change what you did. If I reached the level of men where I could say anything that begins "you should
have", I'd be happy all day just because.

You ought not to have is a throwback, culturally. Many of the pastoral homeland have still not been
moved into the ocean by subdivisions, so the eloquent remark still remains.

You should not have is how you begin a treatise on the recommendations of better people, like you.
Unless that is, I should not have.

I should have done that instead of this, because this has to be the worst idea I ever had. And it was
your idea, to begin with.

I could have are the words of the alchemist on the way out. I could have turned sand into prismatic glass or
even a gem. But I turned to green paper and turned it into a concoction I take for the blues. Just so you will
be happy, I'll cite a different example, but not better: I could have done lots of things last night, but I've got
tonight. I've always got tonight.

I would have never known what it was like. To be with a woman like you; but you let me be there and you
did not seem to mind. I know what it was like to be with you, and I should have looked ahead. It would not
have mattered how much I wanted a different future, I was right there enjoying the present. I should not have
got it all wrong, not all of it. I was a textbook example of a man not knowing, not realizing. I should have understood
that when I opened new doors, looked out windows on unseen horizons, I could have been alone instead, with my
liquor and my satire. I would have said what the hell. Instead of being intertwined with you, in our wanderlust.

There's just one thing, one single truth. What could have happened did. With me, with you. Haves and have
beens, shouldn't and couldn't are all better left unsaid. But there they are, the modern mystics say it anyway.
The stars shine down and say, you screwed up and you could have done the other thing. The sun says it
never takes sides. But I don't agree. He hides behind clouds, he stands out in the clear sky. Making me
see the error of my ways. I see it all in the light and shadows. The moon convenes with the stars and planets..
the moon would. It's her way. Whether I see the night light of the moon, or she hides behind earth's shadow--
They celestial beings tell me what I should have done.