Local Time

The saddest thing was finding
all those family pictures torn,
scattered, half burnt, spread across
Roswell's desert sands, in among
the wreckage that day.

Spindly as they were, gray
and attenuated bodies mounted by
large heads with warm almond eyes,
it's small wonder we'd never found
their bones recorded in stone
along the iridium verge.

The most likely explanation is
they'd inexplicably failed to
properly account for time dilation
when they left.

And upon their quick return
were stunned to discover all
their friends, family, loved ones,
on this world of theirs,
had long died when that asteroid
burst from hell and hit it,
wiping the earth of most life,
65 million years ago
by local time.

Tim's an old guy now. When he was young he wrote some, then got sidetracked - he got a city job. The years passed. Tim retired and moved back to the farm with his wife. He's got some time left, so now he's trying writing again. .

Find more by Tim Laffey in the Author Index.

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