The Old Clock

recently widowed Lisa Marie is lithe and bright
working two jobs
always scrimping
still penniless most of the time

she raises her children in a house where
the rooms have to be rearranged daily
out of necessity
not for fun

she has an old grandfather clock
it shows random hours not proper time
to teach the kids
the certainty of unpredictability

all in all
it wouldn’t be a bad life
if not for endless cacophony outside
the world’s spinning left and right

Mobius strip concepts stomped on
tossed aside then brought back
to show the government’s hell bent on
spreading the democracy thing abroad
defending the Constitution thing back home
no matter what it takes

J.S. O’Keefe’s short stories, essays and poems have been published in Everyday Fiction, WENSUM, Roi Faineant, 101 Words, Spillwords, AntipodeanSF, 50WS, Friday Flash Fiction, etc. Read other articles by J.S., or visit J.S.'s website.