A.F. KING
Clock Counting·Section II

POEM + AUTHOR'S NOTE

Why Not Ask

AUTHOR NARRATION

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Read by the author in the original English.

Why Not AskEnglish narration

A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR

The question behind the poem.

This poem is about a dear friend of mine, who is mentioned in the dedication. He once asked me whether he should be asking me a particular question (which I won’t disclose here). I told him that no, he should not. This poem expresses my feelings about why he shouldn’t.

FOUR VISIONS FROM THE POEM

A precarious anatomy.

Four images below give form to some of the metaphors used throughout the poem.

A tiny curled figure inside an enormous tally-marked shell suspended in a nocturnal expanse.A hand touches a weathered turtle-shell-like charm hanging from a cord beside a pocket.Several hands painstakingly rebuild a tall wooden-block tower hollowed through its center.Eyes made of retinal rods and cones appear in the knots of precarious planks and meet their builder’s concentrated gaze.
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