- Non-Erotic Poetry
- Chronology
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Time spent waiting for the dead
must not be measured on a regular clock
I will build a new timepiece
for that room in which we labored
to greet the corpse. It will measure
twelve hours
in its grind, over years, twelve hours.
Let the one be drawn with screams
and the dark yellow sign
of Something Wrong
Let two and three be built
from the guts of black telephones,
frayed wires and sharp gears.
Let four be crisp and white
in distant sympathy; let it be
a standard response, a number
that happens every day.
Let five and six be made of plastic tubing
running red, or dripping
clear pain and its insulation.
Let the seven be monstrous in size
and the eight be scrawled
in spotted red, still gleaming wetly.
Make the nine
from a nightmare, and cover it
in mottled blue skin.
Let ten be drawn with invocations
the virgin mary, to the shiela-na-gigh
its zero yawning open
drugged doorway to the forever dark.
Let eleven be mercifully small
and at a distance; let it be cramped
into a squat, groaning, broken.
And let twelve
be the beginning of evil time
the hour of departure
written in a child's pure hand.
- COMMENTS
lorencinoover 15 years ago<br>Let it be said,<br>
you are not dead, you,<br>
who writes thus of blooded tubes<br>
and screaming mishapes<br>
that yawn into the beckoning<br>
abyss afronting our vain desires<br>
and those that are clean with prim.<br><br>
You rage freshly<br>
into that Welshman's night;<br>
bring newness to our ageless<br>
lament on our unforgiving mortality.<br>
Let it be said, too, you<br>
blanket us in richness<br>
with this verse, thankfully. <br>
champagne1982over 15 years agoI have read this time and again. I can feel the hands narrowing on the face of the clock, spinning so fast forward that they seem to be going backwards, until you look up and it's closer to midnight. This is a great poem that illustrates how years can be measured in heartbeats and how memory can compress even the slowest moving hour into a mere minute, or second, or less.
WickedEveover 15 years agoExcellent. It was great reading each step in the building of a new timepiece.
Angelineover 15 years agoand this is a very good poem. I'd either take all punctuation out or apply it everywhere. And this would make a really good illustrated poem, just sayin. :-) Your poem has been recommended in today's new poems reviews on Literotica's Poetry Feedback and Discussion forum.
Safe_Betover 15 years agoThis piece has such amazing progression. It makes me feel the steps of a tragic situation like the ticking of your clock. Deep curtseys.
