May 24
CLOCKS
When the clock stops, I wind it up or replace the
battery. I have to; time doesn’t end
because the arms grow slow. The device
wears down but the day is not over. Even
if my internal metronome is bollixed, the planets keep revolving. I can’t step off the world; it doesn’t stop
turning for me. I don’t always have to
keep my head up but I must always go on.
There is no going back. I can
only remember yesterday. I can’t return
to it though it’s so close the flowers are still fresh. Sometimes I struggle to keep my hands off of
the past. Those are the days I secure my
future and wind the clocks.
Create a map to
your own happiness.
*
Princess No More
Decent is less obvious than accent
and so it is with dethroning;
those who put you upon the gilt alter with much aplomb
feel no qualm in taking you down
with not as much as a word or a grunt.
The wind has changed and your reign is over,
the poor startled girl is suddenly in the street.
For a scepter is not a club and why fight for a throne,
which is proven to be nothing more than a straight backed
chair
once separated from its right relationships.
The horror of unexpected common status
is for the young bride an issue of safety and trust
not of ego or presumption.
Who is she without the Prince, the Knight,
she is Princess No More.
You are reading selections from Sober on the Way to Sane
and More Lines From My Life by Sherrie Theriault
