The Lopsided Ticking of Dali’s Clocks, by M.J. Iuppa

The Persistence of Memory, by Salvador Dali (Spain) 1931.

The Lopsided Ticking of Dali’s Clocks
                         
wake me from a deep sleep that hoards
no memory.  I stare into the dark, listening
 
to the uptick of a second hand shoveling
seconds into a battered tin cup, and wonder
 
if these lost hours log my wandering in
a desert that’s cold and still and strangely
 
sealed off from the world of possibilities.
There are no footprints here; yet I
 
can see through my milky eyelids
like a freshwater eel that lives long
 
enough to return to the sea of
its making.
                      I wait patiently
rocking in the wind’s undertow
 
where shadows speed past me
with waves, tumbling
 
to tap me hard
then soft—waking
 
me up, once again.
 
M.J. Iuppa
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M.J. Iuppa ‘s fourth poetry collection is This Thirst (Kelsay Books, 2017). For the past 30 years, she has lived on a small farm near the shores of Lake Ontario. Check out her blog: mjiuppa.blogspot.com for her musings on writing, sustainability & life’s stew.