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The Mistaken Time Traveller (circa 2010)

by James Ph. Kotsybar

I set the time coordinates for May, the year 2020, ten years from now,
I made the jump but, much to my dismay, to a parallel universe somehow.

Gas was priced low, but streets seemed deserted.  Open storefronts were few and far between.  Notices in their windows alerted adherence regarding “Covid-19.”

As though for surgery, patrons were masked.  I suppose the entire populace, because they took one look, and I was asked to leave unless I wore one. Such a fuss!

None sick, the air seemed breathable to me.  … too weird,
I returned immediately.

***

Photo by Adam Nieścioruk on Unsplash

CategoriesFlash Fiction
James Ph. Kotsybar

Chosen for special recognition by NASA, James Ph. Kotsybar is the first poet to be published to another planet. His haiku currently orbits Mars aboard the MAVEN spacecraft, appears in the mission log of The Hubble Space Telescope, and was featured at NASA’s Centaur Art Challenge at IngenuityFest, Ohio. Last Summer, he performed his poetry before an international audience of scientists, journalists and actual Troubadours in their founding city of Toulouse, France, at the EuroScience Open Forum (ESOF2018) by invitation and has been invited back to ESOF2020 to be held in Trieste, Italy. Most recently he has had poems published in The Bubble, Askew, The Society of Classical Poets, LUMMOX Press, Sixfold, Mason’s Road, Encore and Scifaikuest, and has received honors from The State Poetry Society of Michigan and the Balticon 48 Poetry Competition. He especially enjoys science poetry, because of its extended shelf-life.