Wednesday 18 April 2007

Little Black Box - NaPoWriMo Prompt - Tick Tock

This poem is being submitted for Poetry Thursday's NaPoWriMo April Daily Prompts. Today's prompt has been posted as Tick Tock.



There’s a little black box that sits in the shadows
It harbours hearts in there.
One is swollen past bursting point,
The other, is in for repair.

The little black box bears a gold design
Of filigree hearts and flowers,
And a gold faced clock mounted onto the lid
That silently counts down the hours.

There's a little black box that sits in the shadows-
This box you gave to me.
You told me to care for its precious contents,
Then you slipped me a golden key.

I opened the little black box one day,
And saw the paired hearts resting there
While the swollen one beat without failure or strain,
The other lay limp with a tear.

So I laid some flowers next to the hearts,
And locked the lid tight with the key.
I wound the gold clock on top of the lid,
Knowing time would set them both free.

© Strauss
17/04/06

5 comments:

Scotty said...

Love it. It appeals to the romantic old soul in me. :)

Suzan Abrams, email: suzanabrams@live.co.uk said...

Strauss,
this reads like a poem straight from the classics. All at once, you feel it's a family legacy, full of mystery, romance and the secret too, to an ancient heartwarming story of the past. Lovely! :-)

Kathleen said...

I like this one too...definitely appeals to the romantic soul.

Scribbit said...

I love your imagery.

And I'd never heard of of NaPoWRiMo since November--I'm going to go check it out.

Anonymous said...

There's something so delicious about poetry that rhymes. Even more so when it's done well. Like Susan, I think this one sounds like a classic.