#wristwatch
“Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in.”
-Thoreau
Some six or so cheap watches set in a row
Ten-dollar Timex models with shabby straps
Cast-offs and hand-me-downs – and so one asks:
Why are there watches on a refectory table?
The abbey’s clocks are the moon and the sun
And the cycle of seasons each in turn
The changing leaves and liturgies in time
With the Great Dance of stars in their appointed spheres
But even so:
Those six or so cheap watches set in a row
Are
For outside appointments - and now we know!
Nov 23, 2018
Nov 23, 2018 at 12:11 PM UTC
On my watch, worn the wrong way
around my wrist, I see what time it is
in Mumbai, five and a half hours
later than where I live
It's only a quarter of a day's difference
but on visits to my family there
with friends on the beach, or
walking along the promenade
licking a kulfi ice cream
I am years more modern and smarter
than here in England, where
the students live in a way
that has no future in India
I can read the time upside down
but I remain old-fashioned myself
and do not jump from there
to here, from expectations
to daily worries
May 7
May 7, 2026 at 2:26 AM UTC