Once upon a dickory dock
The mouse ran round the town hall clock.
Here, there, in and round about

Once upon a dickory dock
Four smart faces hath the town hall clock

Within the tall brick tower concealed the automaton brain
Its cogs, springs, spindles and chains
Hour by hour functioning with unfaltering precision

Clockkeeper! Tighten the chain
Turn the key;
keep well oiled that mechanical brain

Time is the photo frame of life
Each second of every changing day and season
We hang our portraits on the sky of time

Your sunrise, my friend is my sunset
Your day, my night
and my sleeping, your wakefulness.
An ever changing sky
Each moment a new portrait.

Not one moment can be repeated
Time moves only forward
Watched by a world of town hall clocks
Tick tock

10/18/2001

Posted on 10/18/2001
Copyright © 2024 Anne Howe