Clockwork
The clockwork’s clunking cycles—
routine chirrups working with
our own, mechanical metronome
dictating our waking and falling
and drifting in staccato synchrony.
The clockwork’s scissors shard
furibund flowers by the hour,
comb the seasons, change their warmth,
pendulum the wind to blow for
or press against busy workmen
walking up knotted hills,
mourning dead dew,
falling stones
and lines of kingdoms brushed to dust.
With time, landforms are scuttled
and absorbed by the ocean,
traps are redeemed,
lost smoke in the sky
pulled down and tasted in pure dark.
Anannya Uberoi (she/her) is a full-time software engineer and part-time tea connoisseur based in Madrid. She is currently poetry editor at The Bookends Review and columnist at The Remnant Archive. The winner of the 6th Singapore Poetry Contest and a Best of Net nominee, her work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Birmingham Arts Journal, The Bangalore Review, The Loch Raven Review, and Tipton Poetry Journal. www.anannyauberoi.com