Like a Clock, Like Anything

We are like clocks,

Because there is nothing we are not like.

We are wound up,

There is motion in us,

We tell something.

There is something punctual in us,

Something not punctual.

Meanwhile, we are

Like a reed by a cold river,

Like a fat book on a fat library table,

Like a scared rabbit in the Ukraine,

Like General Grant,

Like General Halleck,

Like the pen writing this—

Like anything—

Didn’t I say?