events travel forward in time
meaning moves backwards
when a plant grows, its flowers bloom
and finally ripen into fruit
the sequence of stages has just proceeded
from left to right
but a farmer knows the tree must first mature
to yield apples
by attaching a goal to the tree
he looks back on the phases of growth and says
this is why the plant first had to flower
and this is why before that it first had to grow a stalk
and before that, germinate from a seed
is the apple really the objective? maybe not
maybe there is no such thing as purpose
only continuity
still, forward flow shows how
while backtracking explains why
in the end, both concepts are simply
our limited way of obtaining a bit of certainty
for something beyond
questions and answers