Time, Warped

Photograph by: Pat McGrath, Ottawa Citizen

Time, Warped

Ghostly fog surrounds the tops
of buildings obscuring their
mannered height. It is as though all
has been swallowed within the
avariciously hungered maw of an
alien invasion with creatures unknown
moving stealthily under cover
of enveloping grey, the incessant rain
dampening our spirits
not theirs as they estimate the value
of all we treasure, the warmth
and light of the sun, blooming flora,
the now-silent birds. Astrophysicists
inform we have yet an estimated
billion years before our sun collapses
and with it life on Earth. So,
what's the hurry ...  ?
you extraterrestrials - unless of course,
we ourselves are the lurking danger
and those who intrude represent the past,
our past, when Earth-escaping pioneers
set out on a planetary
reconnaissance mission
and this reality we now live
is simply time, warped within itself
replaying its backward reel.