not quite a thousand words in poetry

in the universe where you went back in time
you tried to prevent World War Two
by propping up Hitler’s art career
he supplanted Bob Ross on the Joy of Painting
some other messed-up German theorist
ended up leading the country to war anyway
the bitterness from how World War One wrapped up
still lead to the fascists and reactionaries
still lead to years of war and unspeakable horrors
just with a few details shuffled around
history leans less upon the figureheads
more upon movements and cycles and trends
than we would ever care to admit to ourselves
except

the land of happy trees would be
a VORLD OV HUPPY TREEZ
that little fluffy cloud would be
a VLUFFY CLOUD you see
it probably wouldn’t really change
the general thrust of our history
except for our individual details

maybe Sgt. Bob would have stayed
the army drill instructor he’d been
before in our universe he became
the soft spoken artist Bob Ross
that would certainly be our loss
it would’ve been our army’s gain
but I’m taking away your keys
to the time machine just the same

Last updated May 05, 2016