.....................................
I ran out of things to do
Because the day was over.
It was too late to do anything else
When I turned off the TV
So I did nothing but think.
I thought of what I wanted to do
And what I would do if . . .
And then I thought of what I have done.
And what I wish I had done
And what I didn't do.
I thought about my long day of doing
And I wished I could do it over.
My thoughts were running low.
There were only a few left.
It was late and I was slouching.
I thought of all the things I had to do
To get ready for bed.
I thought of lying in bed
After I had done everything,
How nice that would be.
I think that was my last thought
Before I brushed my teeth.
But while I was brushing my teeth
I had a whole different thought.
I was trying to remember
If I bookmarked where I left off reading
Before I turned off the light last night.
I thought I had.
And then I tried to remember what I read,
But I couldn't until after I flossed.
Then it came to me.
Dana had just returned
From her third time-journey
All beaten up and covered with mud.
She had just fought off a white man
Who was trying to rape her.
My thought was my hope
That she will get better at time traveling
As the book progresses.
But the problem with time travel is
You can't change anything
Because, as bad as things are,
You might make them worse
If you mess with the time-line.
And then I thought: Is that the problem?
Is that why things are so off,
So it's like we are living in a Bizarro comic?
Maybe we are all time-travelers
Who have forgotten that we have been here before
Probably countless times
And we have long forgotten the golden rule,
Don't change the time-line.
Too late.
What have we done?!
And then I remembered how I started this poem:
"I ran out of things to do
Because the day was over."
And then I remembered what I was for Halloween:
A burned out rockstar time-traveler.
And then I started wondering if some rockstars
Are time-travelers who
Have learned how to change the timeline
In their favor.
Might it be possible for David Bowie to come back again
And be even greater with less suffering?
I enjoyed that thought above all the thoughts I had that day
And decided then and there
During and after gargling,
That I would be a rockstar time-travaler again this Halloween.
Only with a better wig.
