My chair,
at times over
the past twelve weeks
my prison cell.
Seven weeks more
before my sentence
is completed.
But today,
my chair is going to be
my time machine.
Not flashy and gaudy,
with a Christmas display
of flashing, colorful lights,
nor as threatening as that
celebrated machine of H.G. Wells.
I sit in my time machine.
With headphones and
tablet, I am able to
travel to Vienna to hear
Mozart and Beethoven,
to be in the audience
with the screaming horde
witnessing the Beatle’s
first appearance at
the Ed Sullivan Theater.
Perhaps I will sit
in the historic Carnegie Hall,
for the 1938 Jazz Concert
with Benny Goodman, Lionel
Hampton, Gene Krupa,
Harry James and Teddy Wilson,
hearing in person, “Sing, Sing, Sing”
and, “Bei Mir Bist Du Schon”.
Or shall I travel to the Civil War
battlefields of Stephen Crane,
to Guadacanal, or Iwo Jima,
to Ireland and William Butler Yeats
speaking his magical words?
Shall I travel inter-dimensionally
to Asimov’s Foundation, or
Frank Herbert’s Dune, and
the future worlds of Heinlein,
with a detour to Tolkein’s
Middle Earth, dodging orcs
and spending a day with
Tom Bombadil and Goldberry?
The gift of time and
Inter-dimensional travel.
Where shall I travel today?
© 2019, Robert Charles Wagner. All rights reserved.
