The future perfect tense
describes an act
that will have been completed
by a certain time, as in,
“I will have loved you
fifty years by then,” or
“Had we heeded the alarm
and not slept through each decision point
and reckoning, we might have saved ourselves.”
Other primates have been spared
this power to project a time
in which some future gift
will be bestowed
or not.
Returning from a week at the beach
the sand still in our hair
the body pleased the dog smiling
(if only we had one–
instead, the cats will have endured
six hours in their crates),
Or, the consequence we
did not do enough to stop–
the road sign there was no money for,
the accident the child the bridge repair
the conversation we should have had
and didn’t, and so, by then,
the thing will not have been forestalled.
In the future perfect,
after the final aria
and thunderous applause
the curtain will fall
and I will find the
coat-check tags
and the tragedy behind us,
we will head
into the cold March air
for dim sum and green tea
and this will have been the way it was.
c. Edward Levy, 2019
A professional editor for over thirty years, Ed works in a variety of genres. His projects have received publishing and professional awards.