A Traveler's Return

(a prompt from my workshop, finish the sentences "Well, what can be done but..", "What I meant to say was..", and "When I looked under my..") I hope YOU enjoy it. 

Well, what can be done but replace time with a journeyman's epic of heroic hands, made quicksilver not by an assurance of immortality but of age through the clock's resurrection.
What I meant to say was what I said, only never as elegant, and I'd hope to wrap you in lightening-cut ribbon, exotic imports from the blood rivers I never touched.
When I looked under my clothes I saw the infection I caught from my travels, but a year of burning you soothed with the milk of hours.
Well, what can be done but settle in; we are weary from movement and our hands are still.
What I meant to say will never veer from what I said; you have my words.
When I looked under my clutter of maps which only led me lost, I found you and you led me home.
We have seen the world; let's take the night and tell our stories.