ACCOUNT OF MY DAYS
Sequence: 3
REGISTERED
from some abandoned clock comes
the extra ticks I hear
they fell about the world
after no one was left to listen
and at night when it is coldest fall again
from the beams in my attic or yours
or in the attic of a house
that those who lived there were forced to leave
some other thing that no one could hear
falls between the ticks with a regularity
man's instruments of measure
instrumments made of metal
of sparks of wheels of levers
of chains of porcelain
also record
and it is registered in me
this thing made of nothing
as if my listening were one of the instruments
others bend close to read
my listening for the pauses between words
of my conversation with the not-yet-born