By Jan Noble

Date Posted: Saturday, 15 December 2007

Toward posterity

I cannot tell my dad that maybe
He’ll die before me
He worries enough as it is

From room to room
Making sure all the clocks
Are recording the right time precisely

That all watches are synchronized
That when the inevitable happens
None of us will be late.

He’s a good man my father
And I haven’t the heart to tell him
I haven’t got what it is in me to tell him

That we dismantled each time piece years ago
That every clock is fixed. Precisely
And nothing here moves on