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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.

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