The Future

The future is some miles away
in fading light that fails
to reach the ground through the trees.

It is raining now and will rain tonight.
This is the future - a bit of rain predicted.

The ground will saturate soon.
The rain will run down the road,
pooling at the intersection
into a vast cauldron of brown mud.
This, too, is the future -
a known result of weather.

Or is it the past?
Have we seen the clouds gather just this way?
Have we seen this
and rain that followed later
saturating the ground and running down the road?

Is this the past or the future?
Or is it the present
and the tapping of rain on the roof
says there is no future,
and cold mists rising from wet ground argue
the past is only what we thought
it might have been?

It is raining now and will rain tonight.
In the mist I see the past, present and future,
far, dim, like the forest grasses
below the branches where the light faintly comes.