"Past Tenses" really is built on the fact that Spanish has two past tenses, the preterite and the imperfect, that really do function as the poem describes. The English translations of Spanish words in the poem's octave are accurate. The sestet flows from the conflict between a point and a time period in the past and how one could belie the other; the failing relationship is juxtaposed against a captured moment of hope-drained but well-meaning performance.

Judd Hess holds a BA from the University of California, Irvine and both an MFA and MA from Chapman University. His most recent work has appeared in The Spectacle, The Lakeshore Review, Five South, Untenured, Gold Man Review, and Connecticut River Review.