Learn from Yesterday

“Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it.”

                                    George Santayana

 

We clearly keep making the same mistakes.

You’d think we’d learn our lesson.

Could it be we’re not paying attention, or

Is it some kind of mem’ry regression.

 

It could simply be habit, or

Maybe we’re lazy.

Perhaps we should blame the occult.

We just do the same thing again and again

Expecting a different result.

 

You might think with all of our rational thinking

We’d learn to look back on the past

And learn from the errors of yesterday

And the caution their warnings forecast.

 

Painted on a larger canvas,

Juxtaposed and brought to scale,

The errors of the past deliver

Advice for these perplexing travails.

 

Nations turn and history records

The gruesome résumé, and

Hopes become fantasy if we fail to

Learn from yesterday.