all we know

There’s a twitch in his leg.
There’s a moment, as he opens his eyes each morning, when he comes face to face with another version of himself. Though it’s alarming in a way only possible when awoken suddenly, it fades seamlessly into a comforting yet alert state.
A familiar state.
He’s always thought it reminded him of someone abruptly pulling a warm set of sheets from the contortions of his body, leaving nothing but a bitter cold to embrace him. It is all that is happiness and near and normal, and as surely as it has always been there, it is not.
But, wait.
All of a sudden, there is a new normal. You’ve re-evaluated your stance regarding the whole matter, and the way things became turns, before your very eyes, into the way things are, have been, and perhaps will be.
And each day of his life begins this way. It assures him to know he will be forced to look into the eyes of all that could have been with him, to him, for him.
He accepts what is, sidesteps what may be, and lives the paradox of, to his dying day, hanging on each moment until the moment a new day begins.
He opens his eyes.