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| Big Room by Andrew Wyeth |
The funeral tomorrow
Estate sale the day after
the memories persistent
and so rich and red like the apples.
She could still hear
the thump of her cane
on wooden floor
the tick-tock of the clock.
She wanted just one thing
from this house
where she spent her summers
the clock that once scared her so
It's just my mother's clock
her Aunt would say.
But why must it tick-tock so loudly
So you can hear time passing.
Why must it pass? I want it to stay.
You cannot hold time in your hand.
The conversation so oft repeated
now over but in her memories
the clock had not worked for years
She wanted now only one thing
To make her Auntie Boe's clock
tick-tock again
so she could hold time in her hands.
J. Binford-Bell
August 2012
In loving memory of Auntie Boe and all the relatives I remember
who lived in old houses with scary clocks.
The worst of these was the coo-coo clock at Uncle Ray's.
It was an owl that went whooo on the hours.
It owned the dark at the top of the stairs.
See the Mag 132 for links to other creative takes on the prompt this week.
funny...when the clock stops we miss the sound...the same sound that once maybe overpowered everything else...emotive end there...
ReplyDeleteYou're right. Clocks can be scary. Nice job on the prompt.
ReplyDeleteI like your take very much. I could feel it with the first two lines and the rest was the icing.
ReplyDeleteI love it. I had my grandmother's mantle piece clock restored after my father died (he had kept it unworking for years). There is something to very strange about the chiming sound remembered from my childhood.
ReplyDeleteI have a scary clock...I don't wind it because the chimes are so loud and ugly...it belonged to my great-grandmother...
ReplyDeleteTime passing, I'm having some of those moments with elderly aunts and receiving from them things from long ago that were my mother's. She's been gone 36 years.
ReplyDeleteI loved this. We have just such a clock from my husband's parents' home. And yes, we are going to make it chime again.
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This is beautiful....oh how the memories of our loved ones linger not just in our hearts, but in special things like an old clock or momento. :-)
ReplyDeleteMy gran had a noisy clock,too, which got passed down the family. I was glad my brother liked it enough to take it to the other side of the world, so I didn't have to listen to it's chimes! LOL
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