<html aria-label="message body"><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div dir="auto" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">A Tourist in Time</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;"> </span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;"> </span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;"> </span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;"> </span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">Desk drawer catacomb’s</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">weekly calendars, </span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">ominous litter from</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">thanksgivings past, </span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">years built upon</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">planning dross futures, </span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">A raven articulates </span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">its cawing from Poe</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">as well as Kurt Vonnegut’s </span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">own “So it goes,” and it will </span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">to where I am not yet clear</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">except if to fire </span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">considered too well:</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">Those devouring flames</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">consuming the past,</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">calendars dated with</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">all my years gone</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">which, but for the fire,</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">number only five books, </span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">the lost ones amassed </span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">over half of a century: </span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">handwritten pedigrees, </span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">poems and journals,</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">passports and memories merely mislaid</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">as will be my nearing departure—</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">A tourist in time, learning forgiveness </span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">and how to forget only this and to chant </span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">with Edgar A. Poe foretelling the prophecy </span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">so articulately broadcast </span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;"> </span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;"> </span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">by his candle-gleamed raven.</span><div style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></span></div><div style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- Ed Coletti</span></div></div></body></html>