Typewriter Series #2657 by Tyler Knott GregsonI wish for...

Typewriter Series #2657 by Tyler Knott Gregson

I wish for backwards, ferociously I wish for it,
a rewind of time, a finger on the hour hand
spinning further and further,
the number in the date window of some watch
counting down then starting over as the month
backpedals, as the years fall away.
I wish for backwards, on and on until
buildings are un-built, a story at a time,
railroad tracks lift like stitches removed from
the wounds we caused.  I want to see
contrails wisp away like they were only clouds,
I want to hear silence where highways
once rumbled, I want to rise up and see
how rivers knew the way to the sea
before we knew to build dams to stop them.
One by one I wish for the extinguishing of
electric light, like magic called out before
Tesla fought a desperate war for which current
we’d choose.  Like candles blown out,
I want to see the darkness reclaim itself,
watch the stars grow confident once again,
burning like they knew to burn, like they still burn,
only we cannot find them in the orange haze
of our progress.  
Feverishly, I ask each night for the brave call
of retreat, for a cinematic reversal of all that’s come,
sped up for brevity sake, I ask for us all,
fumbling fools in the dark,
looking for a sliver of light to share, fresh,
flawed but hopeful, waiting for a single spark
to warm us in the night.

-Tyler Knott Gregson-