No one needs to invent time travel by Christiana Doucette

First published in The Thieving Magpie

No one needs to invent time travel

It’s already here. We’re already traveling.

The slam of a door layers then with now.

Raised voices split screen brains

send us back to prisms of pain.

The moment of terror as the airplane turns just so.

Oh, sky that certain clear cold blue, we go

back. We are washing dishes here

suds between our fingers. Indoor. But fear

places us in the car. Plays the announcers

voice crumbling like block towers. Fall.

Time travel exists inside us all. Thinning reality.

What we need to invent is a way away from time’s debris.

A failsafe to replace ache, mistake, heartbreak

with joy. With birds singing clear and sweet, laughter

echoing down the street. Ice pops running down chins,

grins between grandparents. Transparent moments

when the sun shone through the clouds. Just. That. Way.

Golden molasses dough rolled in sugar. Crinkled cookies

cooling on the counter. The need is plain.

We just need time travel that isn’t to pain.

- Christiana Doucette