Temporal Paradox Incursion from Second Parallel

He looked around, carefully.  He was in the correct area,

A most familiar little glade with trees snug around him.

This is where he had proposed to her on one knee,

And now she lay dead with countless millions of others.

He shook the wretched thought wearily from his mind

As slowly he rose from the seat and pushed the door open,

Having carefully reset the controls for 2P temporal lab.  

Sadly he most assuredly wouldn’t be needing it again.

There was a little hum, a slight crackling and it was gone.

There could be no turning back now. But there never

Could have been.  This was his last, best and only shot.

Chance, it smelled absolutely, gorgeously fresh and familiar!

He looked up between the trees at the stars, checking the time.

He was just at the very edge of a new day a-dawning,

And he knew from the smell that he had the right year.

What an exquisitely beautiful planet he had almost destroyed.

Just as at home, there was a little track made by animals,

He knew not why, which wound its way out of the copse

And took him, meandering, to the high end of the long dale

From where he could see the house they had built.

Including the smell, all seemed exactly as it used to be

Back at home, in so distant, so close Second Parallel,

Only here in Prime Parallel, he hadn’t yet dropped the flask;

Here there was no fetid smell of death filling the air;

Here there weren’t too many putrid corpses to bury,

Here he could correct the situation where in Second Parallel

He could not, because he could not be in two places at once.

Obviously.   Here he could save them and, please Goddess,

Wind back time at home in 2P, undo the horrific destruction.

Maybe even another him would appear!  But maybe not,

And anyway, whoever he was it wouldn’t be him.  Not really.

Thoughtfully he made his way down the valley to the house,

So familiar, their much loved house, but not their house.

As he walked determinedly towards it he wondered yet again

If it would hurt, or would it be instant?  He hoped the latter.

The next phase of his soul’s journey filled him with interest

And anticipation, though he had not expected it this soon!

Pain though was a real concern.  He didn’t enjoy pain one bit,

Wasn’t good at handling it.  It made him intensely, wildly angry

And perhaps he’d let go.  And what then, he wondered wryly? 

Could it possibly be a job half done?  Schrodinger’s cat!

Somehow this seemed totally and preposterously improbable,

And pondering on it took him up the path, to the front door,

With a final, melancholy peregrination; nobody lives forever.

The doorbell was different, he noticed, surprised, green.

If he had timed this right – and there was no reason

To think he had not other than unavoidable trepidation –

His darling wife would be far away visiting the dragon,

His much esteemed, bearded and batty mother-in-law!

So as an early riser it would be he who answered the door.

He pressed the bell and waited, trembling slightly

With expectation.  After what seemed an interminable delay

He answered the door.  He had a ludicrous moustache!

He looked incredibly startled as well he should be!

There was nothing for it now but to get it over with.

He rapidly stepped forward and reached out to hold him.

In an instant there was a great crack of thunder

A smell of ozone in the air, and both were gone. 

The Universe allows no temporal paradox.