Heals All Wounds
By Brian Patry
As a little boy
I would watch Rover do tricks
On a planet far
When in middle school
I read of great fusion birds
Orbiting its skies
Post-graduation
Enrolment in sky brigade
I find destiny
The touchdowns commence
Plantings of national flags
Brand name logos too
Promotion at last
The year-long journey extreme
Another man’s flight
And then: Eureka
The Time barrier broken
Reach Mars in minutes
New testing begins
Is man too frail to survive?
Is this man too frail?
Probe returns altered
Now an old grandfather clock
Once a new stopwatch
A new fear is born
Temporal Radiation
A new hope is dead
More Time advances
Seconds quickly fade to years
Too ancient for Mars
I have children now
My children have children too
And they of their own
Yet I still look up
For I am still unfinished
I know Time still flies
They need volunteers
I’m a prime candidate now
Another sample
The trick is simple
Studies prove the obvious
Not quite Time travel
Next best thing instead:
“It’s temporal displacement!
Move through the present!”
Experience helps
The one-man shuttle resists
As we push through Time
I look older now
As radiation eats me
But I feel so young
News reports come in
“Man Reaches Andromeda!”
I touch destiny
I haemorrhage age
Effects include withering
But Time healed all wounds.