Only I Can

A spectator in

a calm museum

I meander among

the futuristic relics

collected from eras

long beyond mine

yet far before theirs

but I know them

better than anyone

for unbeknownst to

any other visitors

I can travel through

the doors of time

and I have seen

all these things

in the very when

of their origins.

Until I stop at one,

a shape I recognize

for its unobtrusively

menacing danger -

An undetonated

time bomb!

I try to tell

everyone to

evacuate but

nobody listens

nobody knows

how precariously close

our world itself

very universe

all the existence of

every time

every where

every when

every care

is about to

implode

out of being

and realizing

too fatefully

only I can

do anything

about this

so as the seconds

are counting down

and I have placed

each soul I can reach

as far from the zone

as I can before it

won't be too late

I run for the bomb

my legs churning

reaching out

3, 2, 1,

almost none -

as it comes alight

and I jump upon it

wrap myself around it

absorb the power of it

within my belly's body

stretching impossibly

the fiery light is everywhere

even all around inside me

shines behind eyelids when

closing shut my eyes

praying lives will be saved

willing the world to survive

and after it all goes dark

I open my eyes...

standing in a calm museum

where visitors admire displays

where a bomb is about to explode

and I must save equally as many

or even more lives this time.

I dash for the director

readying to interrupt

their pompous interview

deciding how to mince my words

to explain the dire situation

wondering how many times...

I must power through again...

because it can only be I...

running for the rescues...

running for the bomb...

I take in the full blast...

open my eyes...

And I wake with less rest

than when I went to bed.

In the light of a lamp

left on above my head.

The world is saved,

but I have not slept.

Now time to face the day.