Squint a Pledge

You can only make pledges for real
if you squint, and if you ask a double,
they'll say squinting does not help either.
'Don't even gaze', they add:
brush off the cotton-fluffed, bright, broad day
from your rose-tinted cheeks and close your eyes:
everything you see, they have already seen it,
too many times, as young as old souls are.
everything you've lived has already been lived
by someone else.
everything you've silenced
has already been golden first turned into copper.
everything you've not lived
has at least been peeked at
by someone brave enough to do it.
everything you've held
has been protected hand in hand by them.
Everything. If anything
You can't afford to look (back). Lot's wife you're not.
You're someone's child promised to life, to future
the present mimics desperately in its green composure, deceivingly informing the rest the buoyant sky is a promise.