as we always do

a story is just a story
which ends as it begins
as it must,
as they always do
and those threads we weave
together from imagination
or belief (the questions
we fail to ask) —
yet standing now somewhere
near the middle
of this particular dream
i see the starts and stops
much more clearly
than before —
about how what
we tell ourselves
(whether quietly or aloud)
resounds in the spaces
of our waking hours
which helps determine
what will rebound our way
and what we’ll tell ourselves
it all means —
as it must,
and as we always do.