A Place in Time

You can find your place

on a flat paper map

or a curved iron globe;

two views

of the same position.

But to know one's time

is tricker still

when paradox is spun

from fabric

that aligns history

and weaves future;

everything we see

through the eye

of the needle.

We could be rainbow blips

on a treadmill in time

in a perfect line

of chain-linked

human arms.

The escape

to the unknown

is just steps away

yet the walk of life

goes on

along the same track

that keeps coming

back 'round

to confront us again,

now a tread deeper.

That, or we're bubbles

summoned randomly

across the plane

and the flutter of one

rocks the ones that follow

on wave crests

that build as you look back

in time.

One bubble

swelled with curiosity

asks, "Who is the first,

and who gets

to dip their finger

in the pool

without feeling

any responding

reverberations?"