Diagnosis — Clock Counting

AUTHOR NARRATION

Hear the poem.

Read by the author in the original English.

DiagnosisEnglish narration

A DELIBERATE DISSONANCE

I Did Know

“an tumbling obelisk” is not a typo.

antumbling obelisk

ON THE POEM

I often wonder whether it is apparent to readers that my use of “an” before “tumbling,” rather than the grammatically correct “a tumbling,” is intentional—or whether they simply think it is a mistake. The awkward, jarring, wrong/off feeling of the way it is written is meant to mirror the way it felt hearing the words the poem describes (i.e. the revelation of a very serious diagnosis).

DREAM AND WAKING

Facing Reality

“you seemed awoken
as though from dreams of flightto find sandbags tied to ankles
& cobwebs on the clocks”

A blue-eyed man rises through a star-filled sky among clear, unwebbed clocks.

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READER DISCUSSION

Share some words about these words.

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