Time Keeper

a poem about the keeper of time's passage.

In our bedroom

A clock goes tick-tocking

Moon faced over the rise

Of my peeled lids.

The black Parkinson's palm

Wipes away time

In a needle legged ballet.

 

The clock, which sees all things,

Clicks in Morse code with black cupid lips,

Stops time from stopping,

Keeps space from folding in.

 

I watch the clock watch as space flows,

Thread in hand, between us,

Plum-picking moments

To hoard behind it’s glossy shield.

 

It’s almost as if the clock

Weaves these images of life for us;

The great scream match showdowns,

The continuum of love making,

The cascading giggles of peekaboo.

 

Yet that clock,

That centrifugal force of life,

That screened porch center,

The dram catcher of time,

Is not time.

It simply holds the time kept universe together

So that time can watch me sleeplessly pine

For more time to give

Before I stop keeping time.

Author's Note

is this poem easy to understand? how does this poem work/ not work for you? does anything jump out to you as not belonging?

Reviews

[Jake Xingu]

I think your poems are delicious and lovely!

[Lucy Hatfield]

...thank you!!!

[Lewis Kenny]

What I got from this, though I may be way off, is that our lives are based around time and not time based around us, life and time will go on when we pass, our time can run out but the clock will never run out of time.

[Mary E Green]

Portrays the difficulties of passing time- especially like the last four verses. An internal struggle as well as one with the universe, maybe? Tell me, what was the running theme for you when writing this? Very deep!!

[Lucy Hatfield]

Thank you very much. I have a very difficult time (no pun intended) with the passage of time. When I look at the clock the day is all but gone when it feels like I had just woken up. I get hung up on it, so I suppose the running theme is my reluctance to accept responsibility for the time that is given to me.

[Mary E Green]

So my perception was right - it is a struggle for you - letting the time pass w/out a fight :) It may one humankind's biggest power struggle for which I can relate! But at the end of the day- it is just the moment we are in right this very second & the rest is just a human concoction...thanks for sharing!