Chronology

two poems

CHRONOLOGY

The circling shadow on the measured dial,

The calibrated falling of the weight,

Are both time's gauge and time's discreet denial.

No captive shade, returning at its date

Unchanged, no loud imprisoned pendulum

Through changeless gravity can calculate

The unimagined change-the swift and dumb

Deforming of the days that countermands

Pursuit of time as a continuum.

Go rather to the random falling sands,

That funnel quicker with decreasing mass;

Go to a lens, that blurs what it expands;

To candles crumbling as their lusters pass;

To cold quicksilver backing mounted glass.