Napowrimo 4/8/26: mining a mantra

 Today's Napowrimo prompt tasks writers with repeating a phrase and then inverting/contradicting it.

nothing bears repeating.
you were born three thousand
times last week, each one
a different "first day out the 
womb" outfit and a new head
of untamed hair. some you were
kind, others you were irate. soothed,
settled, and restless in no sort
of discernible pattern.

nothing bears repeating.
i told the same story to anyone
who would listen. details sacrosanct,
inflections primed and rehearsed. control
without variables. with each successive
recitation, the story became my
god's-honest truth.

nothing bears repeating.
the kids began flipping coins from
dusk until first light. trying to see
if divine will favored the head or
the tail. sleepless, bleary-eyed,
meticulous. perfecting the launch and
catch phases of the operation. duty bound
to record the results and share the good word
of nickel-copper. 

nothing bears repeating.
soon the old ways and forgotten fashion senses
will return to their throne. ascend and wave the scepter;
we will become as we were. as if the bad now were the 
good old when. we'll all be dressing like cabbies and gabbing
away about how it feels right
this time.
we've never been more sure of anything
and we'll flip a coin and chart the heavens and
retell what we've been doing. we'll be born
again and again and again and eventually
we'll do the same thing but with dying.
we're ready for anything, then and now.