Waiting for the Chimes: Day 23 of National Poetry Month

Day 23: National Poetry Month

Prompt used today was “to write your own poem that takes place at night, and describes something magical or strange that happens but that no one is awake (or around) to notice.” One of the first things to come to mind was my grandmother’s hall clock.

I loved that clock and learned to “wind” it by pulling the chains that lifted the counterweights and tapping the pendulum. I loved the chimes and started to anticipate them as if the clock had climbed inside my head. But an odd thing happened, years after I’d moved out of state – I heard those chimes. And I knew it was those chimes, because that clock was always getting ahead of itself.

I called my grandmother and asked if her clock was off by ten minutes. It was. From then on, I took to calling her whenever I heard the chimes, laughing and telling her to set the clock to the right time. It happened fairly often until after she died.

With my grandmother and my mother, this wasn’t odd or “spooky”; it was the most normal thing in the world.

Waiting for the Chimes

When in darkness chimes the clock that stood
below her stairs, I know. For it has never kept
good time; it wanders through the hours. I hear
the ratcheting chains, their heavy counter-weights,
each second ticking, pendulum clicking, until
they can no more—the dreadful silence like
stilled breath. I hold mine, waiting, half-expecting
shadow-stirring, sickle-flashing Death.

Other National Poetry Month Posts

• National Poetry Month, Texas Style!
• Apricots: a Tanka Encompassing Three Prompts
• Bee Sting: Day 2 of National Poetry Month
• Cacophony and CBD: Day 3 in Nonsense Verse and Found Poetry
• Technically, a Writer: Day 3 of National Poetry Month
• Dive: Day 4 of National Poetry Month
• Storm Front: Day 4 of National Poetry Month
• Energized: Day 5 of National Poetry Month
• Grump: Day 5 ½ of National Poetry Month
• Future Frittered Away: Day 6 of National Poetry Month
• Hell, Hell, Hell: Day 7 (More or Less) of National Poetry Month
• Insomnia: Day 8 of National Poetry Month
• Juxtaposition: Day 9 of National Poetry Month
• Knife Edge: Day 10 of National Poetry Month
• Lost a Day: Day 11 of National Poetry Month
• Many Definitions: Day 12 of National Poetry Month
• New Form – Quadrille Quaiku: Day 13 of National Poetry Month
• Ode to Imagination: Day 14 of National Poetry Month
• Pixellated People: Day 15 of National Poetry Month
• Quintessential, Querulous Quintet: Day 16/17 of National Poetry Month
• Renewal: Day 18 of National Poetry Month
• Secrets of the Terrarium: Day 19 of National Poetry Month
• Tenacious: Day 20 of National Poetry Month
• Unruly: Day 21 of National Poetry Month
• Villainous Villanelle: Day 22 of National Poetry Month
• Waiting for the Chimes: Day 23 of National Poetry Month

Your Turn!

Have you ever experienced anything “odd” or “haunting” in the middle of the night? Or the middle of the day, for that matter?