Time Machine

         

Were I to have but just one day,
      To sojourn back in time;
To quit the present for some past,
      Forgotten scene sublime,

Could I but settle on one date,
      I’ve always craved to view,
Or resurrect a photograph,
      To live it fresh and new?

How could I elect just one,
      Most special place and day,
To navigate my time machine,
      On back to see replay?

Which event of great import,
      Have not I most desired,
To witness from our time advanced,
      What truly had transpired?

Would not I be most curious,
      The day it all began,
To see what Adam’s home was like,
      Whence four rivers ran?

Or would I not prefer to view,
      The ark menagerie,
Or better yet to watch as Moses,
      Split the Great Red Sea?

I’d like to see—but not too close--,
      The vengeance Samson wrought,
Or even back on some far hill,
      The way that David fought.

I want to see the Parthenon,
      And Sphinx when they were young;
And Alexandria’s library,
      The stacks I’d walk among.

But how could I not choose to be,
      With Jesus for my day,
To see him do some miracles,
      And all he had to say?

Or maybe better I should pick,
      The day that’s undisputed,
As history’s both worst and best,
    When Christ was executed?

I wish to look on everything,
      True, without revision,
From Marathon to Waterloo,
      And the Catholic Inquisition,

And other most exciting times,
      Such as revolutions,
American as well as French,
      With all their executions.

Alas, though I were capable,
      To view from yore till now,
From dinosaurs to Punic Wars,
      From Genghis Khan to Mao,

From Tamerlane to Dracula,
      On to the brothers Wright,
Like them, I fly my time machine,
      But know not where to light!

                       
            --- Mark R. Barnard  (2008)