Well, you certainly are adept at explicating a poem's meaning by analyzing the subtext. All of these interpretations have validity - my intention is but another possible meaning. I will say this, as I said in A Familiar Rain, we often overwrite our memories. If you look closely at the bridge which is the actual location of the poem, the painting is a work in progress with the left side sketched out but unfinished. Curiously, no one noticed or commented on that. "We strive to connect with the past only to discover that Heraclitus was right--you can't step into the same river twice." Good work!