Years ago I read a clever story
And it inspired the song that I will sing:
Time-travelers sought prehistoric glory,
Went back, and changed a tiny little thing;
Their blunder made reality unravel
Which felt just like the world in which we swim—
As if one tripped in his temporal travel—
If so, I’d really like to ask of him:
Who stepped on the butterfly?
Was it you or was it I?
Everything has gone awry—
All freshly bad and new;
Who stomped on that lovely bug?
From under us they’ve yanked the rug—
It feels as if they’ve pulled the plug
It’s all gone quite askew;
As I intone my song of thud and blunder
I wonder at a distant sound of thunder;
The sky was blue and now it’s gray;
It looks like it’s that way to stay—
It might have happened anyway;
There’s not much we can do.
– Andy Senior, July 16, 2022
