Golden Hybrid: Lumina 2, a brooch by Jamie Bennett

Sarah Wyman

She opened a pocket watch to find the shadowed hours

pulling their clock face to the distance,

little twigs vanishing in a whirl of snow,

but still the long hands reached past forgotten plans

and each set of suggested routes

converged like a spider, centered on its urge to crawl

onto the next project, squared across a row of days

no hinge could clasp shut, no cover could collapse

to the moment when some project pinned

and smoothing towards eleven

hovered on the bauble’s golden ceiling.

As though these sticks could sweep away

the minutes left to sift through

to a waiting stage, the determined dial lurches

forward beyond tiny springs and cogs

layered under an enamel plate,

hidden beneath a wreath of numbers.

Here, clasped on its long chain

all the ephemera of a forgotten day,

the scraped knee that healed,

the ticking unheard amid

crowds and crows that flock

around a timing device lost in a pocket.