The clock on the wall
I
The clock on the wall,
just ticking, ticking;
measuring out time.
It seems to have
a contact with,
an understanding of,
the very nature of time, itself.
But, of course, this is
just an illusion.
It is utterly unaware
of what it is measuring.
A clock is merely a device,
concocted by Man;
it has no more affinity
with time than we have.
II
The other day,
walking in the town,
I saw, through a window,
a clock on the wall
in a funeral parlour.
It was fifteen minute slow.
Most definitely. I know.
For I had set my watch
by the BBC.
This clock clearly had
no idea at all
of what time it really was.
And, more than that,
it seemed, to me, to be
not quite right-
not quite proper, if you like-
this clock being slow in here.
In here.
Time should be treated
with a little more respect,
I would contend,
in the last resting place of all.
Stuart McFarlane
Stuart McFarlane has spent many years, both abroad and in the UK, teaching English. In the UK this mainly involved teaching Esol to refugees and asylum seekers. He is now semi-retired and so can devote more time to writing poetry. He has had several poems published in local magazines and in online publications such as Borderless Journal, based in Malaysia and Culture Matters, The Recusant, New Verse News, Dissident Voice and Ariel Chart, based in the UK.