THE PARADOXES OF TIME

          First Prize Winner
  SOL III Convention, Leicester
                May 1989

As I return alone to the safe haven of the ship
I reflect
On the paradoxes of time.

Today I have walked
In the bustling streets of San Francisco
Amongst living people long dead
While I, who in this present
Have yet to be born of a different star,
Have already died
And now live again.

Time flows continually
But we have cheated that flow.
The only true reality is now -
The 'now' of the present
Which is in our past.
Soon, we must return to the future -
This now's future, and our present.

Illogical?  No.
Time cannot be reversed, only relived.
And one far future day,
When all of us now living are gone from memory,
All the answers to time and space will be known
And understanding will dawn
On the paradoxes of time.

LINDA C WOOD
8810.17

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