Typical! Poem by Denis Martindale

It took me all of sixty years
To build the time machine!
I entered it despite my fears,
No God to intervene...
The safety checks were all but done,
The settings left to test,
As if the battle almost won,
As if now almost blessed...

I shivered as I turned the dial,
Afraid, no turning back,
No sense of joy, no smirk, no smile,
More like a heart attack...
Then suddenly the power grew,
The time machine left home,
The settings changed to sometime new,
Another place to roam...

I went back fifty years and more,
The scanner view agreed,
I tried to open up the door,
But couldn't quite succeed...
It wouldn't open, for I learnt
A force field kept me in,
Despite the fact that I'd returned,
I found I couldn't win...

It was as if God laughed aloud,
The joke, of course, on me,
No longer feeling quite as proud,
No longer fancy-free...
So I returned back home again,
Dejected through and through,
My exit granted there and then,
So what else could I do?

I sold the time machine, of course,
Just spare parts here and there,
Because I knew that God has laws,
Time travel He can't bear...
I thus retired with the cash,
To go on a world cruise,
To live my life with great panache,
My last days to amuse...