Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE OLD GRAY CLOCK, by HARRIET GRACE MCINTOSH


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE OLD GRAY CLOCK, by                    
First Line: Old gray clock upon the wall
Last Line: Tick, tick, tock:—old gray clock.
Subject(s): Clocks; Future; Time


Old Gray Clock upon the wall,
Softly tick the moments
As they fly away
Upon the running sands of time.
Gone: whither is a mystery;
Taking us forth to an unknown destiny.
Where? For what?
Can you foretell?
You tick, tick, tock,
But divulge nothing but the numerals
On your scarred up face,
As your weazened black hands
Slowly crawl around the dial
At a snail's pace.
Ticking the moments that roll into hours,
And spray us with experiences
That change like patterns in the clouds.

Curiously, I wonder at your placidity—
As you tick, tick, tock;
Your calm acceptance of life as it is,
Soothes my restless spirit a lot:
As I list to your rhythmic
Tick, tick, tock.
You neither expose my secrets,
Nor reveal the future's plan;
So impatiently I wait as time goes by—
And always—I list to your tick tock lullabye.
Hoping to catch a glimpse of a whisper
Of the knowledge that you must know;
For you've hung on the wall these many years,
And looked down upon friend and foe.
But I guess you were only made to be a clock,
To convey the time—fell to your lot;
And tick the present moments
As they fly into your face,
And out—into eternal space.
Tick, tick, tock:—Old Gray Clock.





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