Red Loop

​I wiped my brow and sobbed –

Everything is clean and fresh.

Today, the machine was complete;

A portal into the past, wow!

I will choose simplicity; two days ago –

I would still be working, finishing up;

What a surprise I would be to myself!

The strain of completion drains us all,

We obsess with perfection; dull pain

And headaches bleeding into the corner.

Ah yes, two days ago, how could I forget –

A test run to warm the components 

Complete with Shiny metal contortions.

I don’t remember why I struck out,

Just seemed unnatural, crawling through

With arm extended – grinning horror.

I just kept hitting until all stopped

And there lay a pool of my future.

Had to forget…keep believing….

Change the subject and remove the stains

That fate is surely nonsense… breakdown

Of atoms that can change in seconds.

Momentarily I was not myself;

Should never have been so close

To the hammer….my eyes were alive!

Heart was beating, pounding –

And then all was quiet. Success.

I will offer my hand in friendship and smile

And it will finally be over.

Trust

Today I invented a time machine.
I powered it up and turned it on,
It buzzed with a ferocious venom.
Suddenly, a figure appeared –
Through the cloud he was there.
He was me.
Stunned, I realised this was the future.
I was staring at a wiser, older me.
So many questions to ask,
So many problems to solve –
But he was not here for chit-chat;
In fact only six words were said

‘Do not go through the machine.’

Then as quickly as that, Vanished.
Needless to say I was disappointed.
After all, in the future surely
I will have to go through, simply
to warn my younger self, like today.
Dilemma.
But I won’t let it bother me.
I will trust my future self,
Turn the machine off
And live my life.

But I always wondered.
What was I trying to warn myself?
What was so important that demanded
Traveling through time?
The mind ticked over as years passed;
The machine a dusty relic in the corner.

I am now about that age.
Older, wiser and still alert; I trust
Myself not to time travel, even to the past.
But I cannot help but turn the machine on –
Just for old time’s sake.
The buzzing was familiar.
Do I complete the chain? But why?
There is nothing to warn my younger self.

Suddenly a figure appeared –
Through the cloud he was there.
He was me.
Stunned, I realised this was the future.
I was staring at a wiser, older me.
Why was he here? Why did I travel?
But he was not here for chit-chat;
In fact only six words were said

‘I beg you, use the Machine.’