TIME TRAVEL: Present Imperative
What would I change if given another chance,
and how far back? If conception’s not a bar,
then shuffling the genes might deal a better hand.
I didn’t think so once but now I see
that being taller would have come in handy.
Of course we’d be talking then of another man,
and why stop there? Choose different parents too.
But regression cancels good as well as bad;
what odds the new life would surpass the old?
For a start, the risk is high of a change of gender.
There’s no advantage over the status quo;
a kind of immortality, achieved
by sexual reproduction. Reincarnation
through lives lived by our children, children even
not in the direct line; like the Dalai Lama.
In any case don’t heed what equations say;
I’m with old Khayyam and his moving finger;
travelling back in time is bunk. And even
if we are wrong it wouldn’t help, because
there’s no way we could know that it had happened.
Be practical — just think the problem through!
If bodies and brains could really be coaxed back
to some more pristine state, a log would show
reversal of recent changes as further changes
still moving forward in time; this gives us hope.
We can’t stop time, but first and soon we will
delay, then stop the damage caused by time;
then find a way to rejuvenate at will,
regaining bodily strength, potential, beauty
and crucially, the urge to go on living.
