October 9: Retirement

Steady tick, tick, monotonous tock, an empty sound

this morning, and then tick, tick, tock again.

A battery-run desk clock should not tock,

the inexorable shock of time unraveling.

Outside about a block away, a thrum of cars hums,

stop and go at the corner.

I balk at the mad rush and sip my coffee.

Ah. Clock sounds fade,

the ‘paper’ on the screen invisible.

I write pock-marked