“Clocks” by Matt Rouse

I have seven alarm clocks programed on my smartphone
Which I place under my pillow at night

Seven alarm clocks that are set 5 minutes apart
Starting at 5:55 in the morning

I tried to find the most annoying ringtone I could
I still sleep through them all

There is a big round clock above my desk
It has two hands that keep time with ticks

The bigger hand is broken and moves back and forth
Sometimes I imagine this hand is waving

I look at the clock often and divide my day into fractions
Currently my shift is 5/16 of way over

There is a doomsday clock that scientists made up
It measures how close humanity is to causing its own annihilation

The clock is set at 3 to midnight
Every second we inch closer to zero hour

The North Koreans have tested a long range rocket
Large red numbers counted down 4 3 2

One day far into the future time and its numbers will cease to exist
Then it will be very hard to measure the half -life of uranium


Matt Rouse lives in Orange County where he writes and practices controlled burns at poetry readings. He has been published online at culturedvultures.com and won numerous spoken word competitions.

Image source: https://www.flickr.com/h-k-d/

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