Past Performance

[sun_sparks]

Past Performance is not Indicative of Future Gains
 
I think of you on the rampart
standing face to the wind Think this might need commas before and after?
and remember
your hair, how you tucked it,
your other hand laid against the stone. I love the tenderness in this stanza.
 
I remember the stone could you vary the language - stone/remember?
laid a thousand years unmoved I'm getting that the castle is 1000 years old, vs the stone?
against sea and wind, even time, Is there sea lashing against the castle? against - should this be "by"
but for the lichen you touched; I feel like I'm missing a line here that links the longevity of the stone with the lichen. Are you implying that only the lichen degrades the stone?
 
how the years can etch a story
subtle as lichen on stone, Does lichen etch at stone? I love where this is going, but this just doesn't land with what I understand about lichen. If you said decorate or cling to or embellish, I might have an easier time.
beautiful as the wrinkle
at the corner of your eyes. So much love for the contrast between the passage of time on stone and the wrinkle at your loved one's eye.
A story I watched 
as each line was written. I love this, but it seems at a remove. Are you an observer or a participant in this story? Or both?
 
That day we walked in the old city
held within the hug of narrow streets Do streets hug?
each winding bringing a new horizon. This seems a little abstract compared to the specificity before, particularly in the "winding" of streets. (and you use this again below, but more effectively). 
 
It’s a wonder how far
we travelled without
getting lost in the years
of those winding streets given
 
your early riser penchant
for productivity; making who is making this? 
honey-do lists ignored- What are honey-do lists or are those meant to be dashes?
me, usefully idle This stanza is such a change of tone and I felt slightly lost. 
 
on the patio content Not sure why this is broken into a new stanza. 
to imagine its denizens whose denizens?
courtiers of the sun’s kingdom, This is a sudden unexplained deviation in story.
contemplating
 
why the sea broods 
always wanting
more of the land. I feel confused again.
Every day 
 
I read our story
like braille, my fingertips I can feel this. It's a return to the love story of before. It's got texture. More fingertips and touch.
lightly tracing our lines
knowing this life of ours
 
has never been anything 
more than a long good-bye. What a sudden end. It's a jolt - perhaps we could get a hint of this earlier in the permanence of stone and impermanence of man. Long good-bye also risks being a little cliche.

Hi Brynmawr1. Thanks for sharing this. Despite my nit-picking, I can see real love in your words. There is a fabulous textural poem in here exploring lifetimes and permanence and change. 

One comment about the Title - this very financial market derived title (in my opinion) seemed at odds with the tenderness of the poem. It also implied a collapse, which doesn't happen.