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poetry by j matthew waters

Archive for the tag “time travel”

02 Aug 2020

home on a sunday


it’s six-thirty local time
& I’ve exhausted
all my free passes
having encircled the globe
these past forty-eight hours
arriving back home
unceremoniously
& empty-handed

exactly what I was expecting
I can’t begin to say
but this time I had a feeling
something would be different
like happening upon
a door or a window
only I would be able to open

but no such egress
was in the offing
& now I’m back to the only reality
that I’ve ever known
planning on accumulating points
for more free passes
thinking next time
things will end differently




august two thousand twenty
copyright j matthew waters
all rights reserved

Posted in Poetry and tagged , , | Leave a comment
23 Sep 2019

can I get a witness


what year was it again
there’d been so many to choose from
good ones from different eras
ones we had never lived in
at least to our knowledge

we’d been drinking
homemade mead & moonshine
rolling our own cigarettes
lighting them using wooden sticks
blowing imperfect smoke rings

dial in november nineteen sixty-three
or better yet anno domini thirty-one
and get yourself a front row seat
witness for the rest of us what others
simply talk or write or read about
just be sure to come right back
and explain in granular detail
exactly what went down




september two thousand nineteen
copyright j matthew waters
all rights reserved

Posted in History, Poetry and tagged , , | Leave a comment
28 Mar 2019
6 Comments

time travel is complicated


I don’t know these people
where they came from
or what their mission is
having appeared out of the blue
once winter succumbed to spring
now soliciting sugar and milk
and common knowledge information
as if I was their next door neighbor

how they keep finding me
remains a mystery I care not solve
but find me they do
regardless of my state of mind
whether digging a new trench
or scaling skyscrapers
they appear out of the blue
nearly scaring me half to death

how they ever chose me
haunts my waking days
and eerily dark blue nights
when the weight of my eyelids
become most burdensome
as I whisper beneath my breath
praying to the gods that be
that tomorrow they’ll never find me





march two thousand nineteen
copyright j matthew waters
all rights reserved

Posted in Poetry and tagged , ,
02 Apr 2017
3 Comments

No particular place to go


I slept in on Sunday morning
and when I awoke I didn’t know
what day it was

I had been dreaming about time
travel and god knows
how many centuries I covered
that last hour

If it wasn’t for the sudden urge
that startled me awake
I probably would have witnessed the
birth of a King

After I had emptied my confusion
into the toilet bowl
I came to the realization I had
no place to go
other than the hardware store
to purchase
a replacement stopper



april two thousand seventeen
copyright j matthew waters
all rights reserved

Posted in Dreams, Poetry and tagged , , ,
20 Jan 2017
2 Comments

the number inside the number


I chased this little ball around
for a few hours
maybe days
and it never really dawned on me
that I should be doing anything else

I daydreamed in this place
with no time on the walls
with no time outside the many windows
where hills turned into a thin line
blending greens into blues into reds

I used to think that rainbows
have no end
but it was obvious as I wandered
from room to room
my thinking had been backward

Every day I tore off a new number
from a pad glued to the wall
and each day the number was the same
or at least I used to always
think that was the case

you got it all wrong
someone said from afar
it’s not the number that counts
but the number inside the number
that is if you can figure it out

And so I pondered the idea
and eventually solved the number
inside the number
but once I did I was taken away
to a smaller place without time



january two thousand seventeen
copyright j matthew waters
all rights reserved

Posted in Dreams, Poetry and tagged , , ,
01 Oct 2013
9 Comments

all aboard


lights are everywhere like an
electric parade up and down
streets without ends

alien onlookers are amazed
with colors and sounds
this virtual airstrip provides
capable of calling forth
anything attracted to the lights

systematically tagged
the subjects board
kaleidoscope spaceships
buckling in and holding their breath
until reaching their final destination


october two thousand thirteen
copyright j matthew waters
all rights reserved

Posted in Aliens, Poetry and tagged , , , , , , ,
03 Jun 2013
7 Comments

saturday in the park


sitting on a bench in green square park
one saturday morning
I detected so many ghosts
walking about

the first day of summer
was just a stone’s throw away
and the nine o’clock sun
tried to burn the foggy images
out of my mind’s eye

some wandered alone aimlessly
some marching in groups of two
or three or more
some pretending they really had no business
being here
while yet others carried bags
or pushed empty strollers
hoping to find ways to fill them

at the nearby city gardens
I spotted little ones sniffing
red roses
that always came back to life this time of year

I leaned back and marveled
at how all of the ghosts
managed to travel through time and space
just to revisit opening day
at this year’s farmers’ market




june two thousand thirteen
copyright j matthew waters
all rights reserved

Posted in In the City, Poetry and tagged , , , , , , , ,
20 Jan 2013
9 Comments

how deep is the sea


sitting cross-legged on the floor
my mind shut the door
and i was left alone
in the dark
with a candle and a match

i closed my eyes and focused
on a fire burning in the belly
of a giant fish that swallowed me whole
delivering me to unfathomable depths
where indescribable creatures
ruled an invisible world

as ocean waves crashed on top of me
the door violently swung open
and the room became drenched
with natural light
my hand still holding
the unlit match
the candle
nowhere to be found



january two thousand thirteen
copyright j matthew waters
all rights reserved

Posted in Dreams, Fishing, Poetry and tagged , , , , , , , , ,
05 Jan 2013
9 Comments

little mermaid


i opened my eyes
to a world full of ice
beautifully blue
and frozen in time

ages ago i called
out your name
chipping the surface
to find you again

with a little magic
i bent the tides
hoping tomorrow
you’d resurface alive


january two thousand thirteen
copyright j matthew waters
all rights reserved

Posted in Dreams, Poetry and tagged , , , , , , , , ,

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