Skip to main content

The Time Machine

As I face the small time machine
And the wires cuddling each other
Like sinners in love, I find my answer.
'Go back and save yourself', they say;
'Go back and this time get your girl'
'You can undo your bicycle accident'
'Why don't you edit your career now?'
'You can correct every error you've ever made'
'You now know what you shouldn't have done'
'Why don't you stop yourself from going
To that coffee shop on the 18th of May?'
'Go back and post that letter a little earlier'
'Don't forget to slap that sick professor'
'Go back and tell your friend the truth
About her husband, without any fear'

They all want me to erase
All the wrong footprints on
The sands of time, and they want
To have a better life,
A corrected, proofread life,
Using my little machine;
But will I be the same person
Once my mistakes get undone?

I press the key, turn the dial
And find myself before a child
Busy with his puzzle.
I know where his mother is now.
I place the last piece of his puzzle
And watch his surprise, in surprise.
He looks more like me
Than the faker in the mirrors now;
I find myself in his young eyes
That houses the soul I have lost
In the hurricanes of life and time;
My soul looks back and smiles
Showing me how ephemeral
Childhood truly is,
And how well I have grown;
In his askance gaze I find
My answer, and I sigh.
'This is what happiness looks like'
I whisper, and before leaving
I show him
Where his mother hides his cookies.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Dream

I live and breathe like a misplaced dream In this labyrinthine construct of time; Like a flower that blooms in the wrong garden; Like a kite that soars in the wrong sky. I try to find my place in this maze; Where the horizon is a cerulean haze; Where children are taught how to lie; Where a flightless swallow dreams to fly; Where tears burn the eyes like a pyre; Where simplicity gets butchered by satire; Where justice is just like a starless night; Where compassion is always a lost fight; Where deaths can kindle an endless debate; Where love is defeated by war and hate; Where colours of humans put seasons to shame; Where despair is the prize for the agonizing game. I watch, I cry, and I wish to be born In the distant future; For one day there’ll be A world that cares, a world that dreams; And I will find the right sky for my kite.
2 comments
Read more

The Exoneration of Heidi Schäfer

In the shadows of a dead city she stood And waited for the sun to go down. Heidi had been a daughter, a wife, a mother, But never Heidi. She watched the remnants of a long forgotten song Lancing towards her from the medallion above And her heart looked for the listener; The one who had listened to all her prayers. "Now that my road has come to its end, Show me where I can wash these stains Off my broken skin," Heidi whispered When she found the listener, Playing his flute under an ageless tree. "You've come a long way, Heidi," he said, "You were too cautious not to fall, Which made you forget that you could fly." Heidi watched the hills falling in love with The abstrusity in the melodies he wove And said, "The hills look like a dream." "Yes, but a dream you chose to bury, Under the weight of your sins," he said. "You have been all, Heidi - You have been a seed, a plant and a tree But you never danced wit...
2 comments
Read more

Grayscale

Why couldn't I be like that? A little boy, playing in the sun And chasing butterflies...? Knew I shall grow up one day Like everybody else And I feared the sun would stop Smiling back at me... Why do children grow up? Is it necessary to learn to lie? To fake smiles, to wear masks? To get lost in the rigmaroles That life offers aplenty? To hear about 'being a good person' And not being one, but still growing up? To write songs about love And lend them to the most undeserving? To consider your mother a burden Whose absence had once meant darkness? I'm the greediest person in the world 'Cause I wish to have the biggest treasure.... The days that sped way too fast... I want to lose balance and fall From my little bicycle again.... I want my father to bear my weight On his shoulders, singing unmelodious songs I wish to get awed staring at the rainbows Instead of knowing every scientific explanation I wish to fall, g...
Post a Comment
Read more