Robert Penn Warren(1905–1989)

There's a Grandfather's Clock in the Hall

There's a grandfather's clock in the hall, watch it closely. The minute

hand stands still, then it jumps, and in between jumps there is no-

Time,

And you are a child again watching the reflection of early morning

sunlight on the ceiling above your bed,

Or perhaps you are fifteen feet under water and holding your breath

as you struggle with a rock-snagged anchor, or holding your

breath just long enough for one more long, slow thrust to make

the orgasm really intolerable,

Or you are wondering why you really do not give a damn, as they

trundle you off to the operating room,

Or your mother is standing up to get married and is very pretty, and

excited and is a virgin, and your heart overflows, and you watch

her with tears in your eyes, or

She is the one in the hospital room and she is really dying.

They have taken out her false teeth, which are now in a tumbler on

the bedside table, and you know that only the undertaker will

ever put them back in.

You stand there and wonder if you will ever have to wear false teeth.

She is lying on her back, and God, is she ugly, and

With gum-flabby lips and each word a special problem, she is asking if

it is a new suit that you are wearing.

You say yes, and hate her uremic2 guts, for she has no right to make

you hurt the way that question hurts.

You do not know why that question makes your heart hurt like a kick

in the scrotum,

For you do not yet know that the question, in its murderous triviality, is

the last thing she will ever say to you,

Nor know what baptism is occurring in a sod-roofed hut or hole on

the night-swept steppes of Asia, and a million mouths, like ruined

stars in darkness, make a rejoicing that howls like wind, or

wolves,

Nor do you know the truth, which is: Seize the nettle of innocence in

both your hands, for this is the only way, and every

Ulcer in love's lazaret* may, like a dawn-stung gem, sing-—or even hurst

into whoops of, perhaps, holiness.

But, in any case, watch the clock closely. Hold your breath and wait.

Nothing happens, nothing happens, then suddenly, quick as a wink,

and slick as a mink's prick, Time thrusts through the time of no-

Time.