Counting downward

How many times
         have I worn a watch
(consistently)
         until it stopped
being consistent
         so I stopped wearing it
?

Why try
to rely
            upon such fragile devices
(like butterfly wings)
             that beat on deaf ears
while years
go by
like hours

?

Like most of us
I check the phone
for answers
to more than
Hello?
(without a pulse
that I can count)

How fast was it All
going
by day, by night
             -impossible to tell
ourselves or the others
without a second-hand
account.



Artwork by Winslow Homer, wood engraving, 'Another Year by the old clock' c. 1870 in Public Domain.

Bells & Whistles

Ah, a gift for thee
        a token of my love
           a bit of magic by mans making
Look and see
         the face
              the hands
                    the delicate machinery
Of the precious dial that
          is alive
            it beats
                its face reads with guile
Please, carry it with you
              always keep it
                  close at heart, handy
                      it wants to feel your pulse too
A handcuff? No!
                a shackle-perhaps
                    for some its a ticker, a fuse
                         Coded lines that sign in analog tho
watch its powers,
                 you'll see, this little clicking gift, a tricky token
                            from me, will count unto eternity
                                 all the ways and each of the hours
of my love
making time
trying to be
when it was
is all
we needed
(and a piece of time for thee).



Image By Seriykotik (Own work) [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons.