Assemblage, by Dewitt Henry

Assemblage, by Ruth K. Henry (USA) contemporary

Assemblage

A wooden shadow box,
three sides lined with
construction CAUTION tape.
Then bottom lined in 
astroturf on which, to left,
a broken wristwatch lies
face-up and seems to
burst gears from in back,
one in midair on left,
two emerging in front,
another smaller on box’s top,
outside, from which inside
a thread holds one wing
of a golden butterfly, 
filigreed wings cut
from foil, while the bottom
of the opposing wing
is anchored to the back 
of the watch.  The slightest
movement of the box 
sets fragile butterfly trembling,
alive with shimmers,
though in its right wing,
two more gears appear ingrown.
CAUTION read the letters
surrounding this scene,
black type on yellow.

Time flies!


*

Or:

Wristwatch out of time,
casing cracks, hands break,
face wears free, springs and gears
dislodge, even these, perhaps in
some landfill, in time absorbed.  

You’ve seen the pics 
of rarity, the tree that grows 
through shell of car.
Man’s ruins jungled, vined.  
Our traces become elements,
and elements absorbed.

Or perhaps we recycle.
The butterfly, for instance,
the ghosts of gears in fragile
wings, its body golden metal,
the artist’s emblem of change,
of transformation, and yet
surrounded by CAUTION 

as if creations forget us.

*

Or:

Hurry up, or slow down, please.
Human time, machine-time,
flywheel, spring, pendulum, or
digital blink, merge, in time, 
with nature’s measures,
the chrysalis, journey from
caterpillar to butterfly.  Rebirth.

However, danger in this threshold,
as nature absorbs tech.

Deistic hubris? Creator
in eternity, nature Her clock.

The art itself is nature.

DeWitt Henry

DeWitt Henry’s books are  Restless for Words: Poems (Finishing Line Press, 2023); a U.S. edition of Foundlings: Found Poems from Prose (with art by Ruth K. Henry), Trim Reckonings: Poems and Do I Dream or Wake? Longer Poems (all from Pierian Springs Press, 2024).  He was the founding editor of Ploughshares and is Prof. Emeritus at Emerson College. Details at www.dewitthenry.com.