Onomatopoeia
Pries my lids open;
Tick, tock. Tick, tock.
What is it counting?
Not seconds—
Time relinquished meaning
When humans forgot how to make things count
Inherent sound wards sleep away
With warning bells
Shrill whistles
Like that before a broken man exacts vengeance
Like that before the gentlemen takes his first bite of kin
Sanity is irrelevant
In this world of machines making machines
Machines eating dogs for the dogs
Machines still keeping time for no one
Or for themselves?
Intelligence wasn’t intended, or prevented
Though there is no doubt
Clocks cherish time
For they can feel when their time is ending
Sense the last moment is near
And perhaps beat a millisecond slower
To conserve
For they know that the earth can shatter
In less time
Than a tick.