Such watches – tautly wound weapons of choice,
their diamond numerals glittering sails, wanderers on seas of glass,
their soul’s science and logic, Greeks who came to plunder –
end the Sundial’s kingdom,  and run his people off.     
The young, the old, and the slow caught,
spoils and slaves taken, barter and hostage for trade,     
with us, their distant future’s Gods.

Such watches – it was Ulysses heart, clever and old,
the loving father that armed each tooth, put helmets on their heads,
and taught each son how to stop the blows of the mighty gear's hammer.
And no one knows who made the first sprocket,
or set its army marching to its jeweled and secret wars.

Such watches – time an island, whose boats flee,
its prince the Cyclops blinded, its monster humbled,
Uranus and Gaia’s son in dark dreams tortured,
his heart kept ticking, its physics bewitched,
and held like sex between the watches' shells.     

Such watches – the heavy, ticking breast, more than a she,
her cave is cool at midday, her coils the night winding down
on steel's thin perfections
while the world is stopped, thick as noon,
and green as brass.

Such watches - Glory O Glory Ulysses, the sirens call,
they seem to sing only for you, their songs are figs and green wine,
their beauty the beach as it curls with waves,
the sun that day hot, the air sharp with salt,
and rank with the smell of the penned sheep
ready for slaughter.     

Such watches - Glory O Glory Ulysses, see how they sway,
suddenly all thoughts of raids and schemes evaporate from your head,
and as befits a man who is blessed, you are back in Ithaca,
a boy again, in your father's orchards
where the cold, clear, water runs over the stones.

Such watches - Glory O Glory Ulysses, how you've changed,
you are no longer quite the country bumpkin.
And in a moment of almost Athenian grace,
you deftly turn the boat
and again and forever, start over the voyage.

- John Barrale

** May 26, 2009 - Revision/ Final Version posted
- J. Barrale