HOW TO MAKE THE RIGHT DECISION AT THE RIGHT TIME

The clock shaves off
another bit of time

tick by tick by tick
it doesn't give a tock.

A patina of time
covers the dusty ornaments.

The eaves drip.
Nature's clock.

I measure time
by how long it takes

the cuckoo's voice
to travel

from the background
to the foreground

of this storm
tossed morning.

I feel myself as
if I am

the personal measurement
of boredom.

A fly lands
on a bishop's mitre.

Washes its hands
assiduously.

Then buzzes off
in case it catches religion.

The chess pieces
resume their silences.

I feel like a female mammoth
frozen in a block of ice.

Time refuses to move on
sti...sti...ICKS.

My husband plays chess
with himself.

Can never tell whether
he's winning or losing.

"I'm a Gemini..!"
he explains.

Like duh.
"I'm just a poor little Cancer!"

He is beating himself up
about beating himself.

I watch him move from
one side of the table to

the other
like a Buster Keaton movie.

An eyelid twitches but
is instantly repressed.

The eyebrow about to be
raised...instantly isn't,

He is a bad loser.
Even to himself.

A hand raises a King
and a Queen is taken.

His lips
a taut straight line.

I am only wearing a thong.
Getting goosebumps.

I chew a Swano 4906.
Bitten to shreds.

"Five...I said...five letters!"
Loudly just to annoy him

Beginning with an O and
ending with OP.

"Stowed cables
below water line!"

What kind of clue is that!
I haven't got a clue.

"Harold honey!"
I yell.

"Orlop!"
he grunts.
"Orlop deck!"

Never taking his eye off
of his other self.

"Who would have thought..."
I think to myself.

"That *** and money
could become boring!"

A pillowcase on the line
***** for help.

It has lost a peg
Holding on by a peg.

The wind makes it pregnant.
Its belly billows.

It swells and takes off
like a ship setting sail.

Jumps over the wall
chasing an horizon.

"Me an' all!"
I thank it for the tip.

Decide to leave
Harold honey

by Tuesday
at the latest.