The Quotation Of The Day Mailing List
Quotation of the Day for December 9, 2003
In Time
As far as the clocks--and it is
time to think of them--
I have one on my kitchen shelf
and it is
flat, with a machine-made flair, a
perfect
machine from 1948, at the latest,
and made of shining plastic with
the numbers
sharp and clear and slightly
magnified in
that heartbreaking postwar style,
the cord
too short, though what does it
matter, since the mechanism
is broken and it sits unplugged
alongside a
cheap ceramic rooster, his head
insanely
small and yet his tiny brain alert
for
he is the one who will crow and
not that broken
buzzing relic, though time is
different now
and dawn is different too, you
were up all night
and it is dark when he crows and
you are waiting
to see what direction you should
face and if
you were born in time or was it
wasted and what
the day looks like and is the
rooster loyal.
- poet Gerald Stern
Submitted by: Terry Labach
Nov. 25, 2003