“Look Again” by Brian Hugenbruch

The Agency, as part of our process
for becoming a Time Agent, has conducted
an extensive temporal core-sample,
drilling into your once-and-future history,
pulling striated time from the normal stream
so we may study the sediment.

(Your references are fine,
 but future result is a much better indicator
 than past performance.)

Look here, and you’ll see
a snapshot of your eyes
from every side of your life:
weary, worn, and always sad.
Scraped knee, twisted ankle,
broken heart, lost job,
failed marriage, ruined world.
Your years read as a litany of loss…
the more you see, the sadder you seem.

But look again.

Behind that wide brown eye,
regardless of how it sinks, shot
through with blood over time,
there lies a consistent strength
of spirit, a fortitude. You always had
and always will resolve to press onward,
to complete the work ahead and behind,
until at last our sample ends—out of time—
and you’ve no more strength to give.

One sees a doubt arising in your eyes,
but your application has always been approved.
It is known and fact that you will have done
fine work for us, and saved many lives.
And we’re sorry for your future losses…
as you will be, in time.

Brian Hugenbruch is a speculative fiction writer and poet living in Upstate NY with his wife and their daughter. He spends his daylight hours drinking too much coffee and trying to explain computer security to other nerds. His poetry has also appeared in Dreams & Nightmares, Apparition Lit, Abyss & Apex, and Liminality. You can learn more about him online at the-lettersea.com. No, he’s not sure how to say his last name either.