How To Build A Time Machine

(album: This Delicate Thing We've Made - 2007)

If I have understood correctly
Velocity equals the distance traveled
Divided by time
I've read every word ever printed
On quantum physics
And now it is time to try
I read your book, I found your notes
I dusted this thing off and turned on
The key
The rumbling motors
The buzzing incredible gadgets
The hissing electricity
And now the moment has come
I'm traveling back in time

They're running down the hall
I've started the countdown
They want me to stop
But I don't think so
I'm ready to go
Let's get the job done

Beyond the paradoxical
All the lights are dazzling
Pass the planes, and trains, and satellite navigation
Pass the time I spent today
Through the nearest wormhole
In a stunning ball
Of white
The light explodes and lands on you

And you're five
Always running away
And I was dying to kiss you
And I
I don't want to cry
I don't want to see
Where the moving van takes you
So I travel on
Beyond the stars
At one hundred and eighty-six thousand miles per second
I can fly
Forward a few years
To nineteen hundred and seventy nine
I caught a glimpse of the sky

They're coming down the road
They're coming to get me
I never should have come
I hide the time machine
I'm running down the hall
I think I'm in my old house

Pass the place where I grew up
Number nine Lake Road
Pass the swimming pool
And Mable park
And past Troy Clifford's house
To the Argonaut (?)
To the fish and chip shop
Out the back and down the road
To the place I got beat up

Hey, put that rock down
Can't you see he's half your size?
Hey, he looks familiar
Oh my god, he's me, age nine

Put your shoes on
And run away from here
I can't get involved
This is all so weird
I'm meeting myself
This is all so clear

All the things I've lost
All the people I've hurt
All the times I lied
All the moments wasted
All I never did
All the dreams I had
All the things I would change
I can change them

All the things I've lost
All the people I've hurt
All the times I lied
All the moments wasted

I'm gonna make right
What I did wrong
And change how the future has come
Through appliance of science
I'll take a hold of my enemies
Take their obscenities
Kiss them, and leave them like lovers who've gone
I'll call my dad
I'll tell him I miss him
And tell my reflection: 'it's not your fault'
And now the moment has come
I'm traveling back in time

They're running down the hall
I've started the countdown
They want me to stop
But I don't think so
I'm ready to go
Let's get the job done

Put your shoes on and
Run away from here
I can't get involved
This is all so weird (It's me aged nine)
Let's get the job done

All the things I've lost
All the people I've hurt
All the times I lied
All the moments wasted
All I never did
All the dreams I had
All the things I would change
I can change them

Beyond the paradoxical
All the lights are dazzling
Pass the planes, and trains, and satellite navigation
Pass the time I spent today
Through the nearest wormhole
In a stunning ball
Of white
The light explodes into another moment