Love Poem: The Future Child, Part I
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Written by: David Welch

The Future Child, Part I

I will tell the tale of what happened then,
how ruin came upon this world of men,
what we did to fight it, and how that worked,
what we can do now to escape this hurt.

There’s not many left, 10, 000 or so,
there were billions a century ago,
until the phage plague devastated Earth,
it’s basically a contagious cancer.

It came out of China, born in a lab,
a bioweapon they wanted to have,
like Corona before, it somehow ‘leaked,’
and very quickly fresh victims did seek.

Socialism kills, this time it killed all,
slowly but surely we watched people fall,
China died fist, it took them twenty years,
then spread through the world, to everyone’s fear.

The scientists tried, received all the funds,
no stone left unturned, but naught could be done,
we slowed the progression, but nothing more,
death was three years of absolute horror.

The birth rates fell, and the technology too,
a century gone and we were too few
to sustain modern civilization,
those left faced a dark age and damnation.

But amidst those who had immunity
was a physicist named Armand McGee,
he had a way to make this unravel,
not with medicine, but with time travel!

Yes, that old chestnut, born out of scifi,
but this man was genius, and we realized
that it was possible, strange as it seemed,
we could now undo this horrible dream.

We scavenged the wreckage of our lost world,
found what tech was left, and the plan unfurled,
but problems emerged in the testing phase,
time travel proved tough to people of age.

Four people went back and four people died
within a week of reaching the other side,
it seemed the solutions lay with the youth,
those under twelve could survive going through.

There were countless orphans, some volunteered,
we selected out the best from their peers,
taught them what to say, to explain all this,
the choice we settled on? A young man named Chris.

Chris was just ten, but had great memory,
his parents were lost, so he was free to leave,
we gave him documents to prove our case,
used the machine to send him through time and space.

When Chris went back, people thought him insane,
they searched for his parents, did so in vain,
but when he said things that he couldn’t know
the government came, away he did go.

When he told his tale there was much debate,
some said ‘lock him up,’ while others said ‘wait,’
scientists ran tests, knew not what it meant,
it finally attracted the president...

CONCLUDES IN PART II.