Ode to the yesterday by Nadia Benjelloun

To some more than many, memory of yesterday

is forth from a naysayer’s push-away

But be obliged that day of yesterday, for it brought you where you are

A naysayer’s claim might be that it keeps you astray

Stuck in the past, as it were,

But ever so fickle is the present

Thereby yesterday shan’t be static

And every tomorrow brings a new yesterday

Think alone of lessons amended and present ideas formed,

due to the moments of yesterday

Yesterday is the praying mantis--

Likewise bring your hands together and to your chest

For reflections best is at thy hour of yesterday

It is like the pillow on which you rest your head at night, 

though remember a pillow can go under your feet, or adjusted to your side,

 clutched in comfort also, flexible as such is thy hour of yesterday

Echoes of hearty anecdotes whipped in a bowl, admonition and wariness for the foundation, and

bitter sweetness for the frosting, amounting to this cake, fruitful is thy hour of yesterday

moreover, those slices can be shared, but only at the hands of thy hour of yesterday

Even Yesterday pleasingly permits pertinence for the sake of you and me

Not a nod, but a bow of the head mind you, before it’ll flee

Because aware of the respect owed it in remembrance,

It comes with no price for its materialization, therefore fitting its deference.

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From Tangier, Morocco, Nadia Benjelloun is a poet, novelist, essayist, and editor. Her works have been published in anthologies since 2009, and as of late have made an appearance in The Sagebrush Review, Eskimo Pie, In Parenthesis Journal, The Scarlet Leaf Review, DM du Jour at Danse Macabre, The Book Smuggler’s Den, The Literary Yard, and The Abstract Elephant. She currently serves as a prose editor for Typehouse Literary Magazine.