How the prequels should have gone

To write the unwritten
past is opportunity enough,
is it not? To say to a story
that it needs a new beginning?
Of course, prequel-making
is only human: we spin
new versions of our histories
regularly in our narration
to others or to ourselves.
Perhaps it is reasonable
to say I am this way
for a reason, or this
should have been different
or it was more complicated
than that.  Perhaps I tell myself
how the prequels should have gone
every time I am confronted
by the need to justify my story
to myself, or to say to you
look: here is where our pasts
have merged us.

 l