Deathwatch and Others
by Josh Pearce
Horrific Scribes Extremity Rating:
Deathwatch
How(hit my
)Long? tick
will I
wristWatch (wall)
against the (all
myWritten) head
Tell ) Death
watch (tale
Beetle / harbinge(r)
tickin
(rotten) prediction
(foundations) click
(
rot)(
written)
number
ofstopped (ofdead)
clocks
batten timbers
termite(bitter)
bitten(terminus)
woodworm conscience
how long hit my omenpoem
against wallof heartless tradition
(till
) louse
holed
house (
All
rich men within
driven
insane (until
tell(the)tale
(written) in
legend
God Wrought
(scream defy)
there are 5,000 stars
visible to the naked eye
and 15,000 nuclear warheads
worldwide
(what has god wrought)
we can quadruple
the night sky
(that man has not?)
if only we try
Clockface Cobweb
spiderweight pendulum
hanging by a spun
thread
beneath swings
the fly spins in clockwise
spirals, trying to break free
of this clockface
as the eight-
fingered hand
climbs closer, up its string
each tick tick step of
spider leg,
an unhurried thing
and with the spinner's bite
the fly's motion spring
(going
oh how it flies if only there
was a little more)
secondhand
slowing to a
(oh,
how it flies
if only
there
was
a little
more)
stop
minutehand
full stop
un
winding