Just Before Zero

6am. Wake up. Horror.

Brush teeth, freshen face.

Doubt belief. Straighten faith.

Just have to get on with it.

It's got to be done.

Check the time: 0609.

Shower? Rush.

No time. Bus.

Dress. To kill.

Dying to eat.

Breakfast. Tea.

Look. Don't see.

Function body.

Focus mind. 0639.

Don't think! Don't think!

Just stay in line.

In a mere half an hour

More worry lines growing.

And two more years of your age

is showing. Then 0648.

You better get going!

Got everything? Check.

And an aching neck.

Forget it. It's old.

Just have to get on with it.

It's got to be done.

Outside there's no sun

though the day has begun.

It's 0654. God! Open the door!

Six minutes. Check. I'm cutting it fine.

One last look around. One final time.

At all that is mine.

I really must go.

The clock on the wall

-I wish it wasn't so-

Marks my heart, ticks its beat.

I'm a watch-maker's meat.

I wish it meant nothing.

And I wish I could stay.

Sit all day at the table

staring into its face.

Relaxed by its movement.

Following its trace.

Careless and carefree.

No debt or cold sweat.

No morning or evening.

No deadline, no fretting. 

No fetching or getting.

No want and no need.

I will never be freed!

I'm a victim, a seed

of someone else's greed.

A fat man with a bomb

from a movie long-gone.

I'm the nick-of-time hero

and just before zero

I snip the right wire

Get the girl I desire

Save the world from destruction.

I'm a pawn of construction.

The champion of the system.

A man with Its mission.

The show must go on.

Just have to get on with it.

It's got to be done.

Work. Factory. Office.

Metropolis. Necropolis.

Clock watches.

Hands. Faces.

Check gauges.

Chain-gang of Ages.

Pressure. Raises.

Day-dreaming. Time? 0709!

For The Grand Design

from which one day I'll die

I'm destined to be late.

It was always my fate.

Reviews

[Sweet_pale_cacophony]

You always come up with something new and so very fresh..This was very very fast paced,the reader was with you all along.No one holds the attention with their words as you do,you have such a skilled grip on your words and such finesse..from the starting till the end.
We are such vulnerable victims of time and our demanding lifestyle that even we don't realize how we have become so..This seemed more to me like a Monday..oh but then i have a special dislike for em days but yes the way you begin..Doubt belief. Straighten faith.
Just have to get on with it.
It's got to be done...this reminds me of my Monday morning reassurance rambling to myself.Then again..More worry lines growing.
And two more years of your age
is showing...oh how i love this phrase as it leaps on to 6.48..I like the poem more when it begins with 'mark my heart,ticks its beat'.'.I'm a watchmaker's meat' is such an exquisite phrase.I just love how it sounds and how it contains so much in that phrase.We all are watchmaker's meat..unabashedly so, :)...Though this poem has so so many phrases which are so very well written i want to repeat this stanza,
I wish it meant nothing.
And I wish I could stay.
Sit all day at the table
staring into its face.
Relaxed by its movement.
Following its trace.
Careless and carefree.
No debt or cold sweat...I couldn't take my eyes off these words in specific.I read them so many times.How many times have I wished so..just how many times.I just like the idea of being relaxed by the way the clock works,to trace its hands.It is just amazing to think how 'careless' and 'carefree'..are such guilt words these days,and all cause of an accustomed coerced thinking.Oh 'metropolis,necropolis'..such contradictory twin words..:)
Thank you for always bringing up something new and brilliant.

[Fran Marie]

The clock on the wall
-I wish it wasn't so-
Marks my heart, ticks its beat.
I'm a watch-maker's meat.
I wish it meant nothing.
And I wish I could stay.
Sit all day at the table
staring into its face.

Whoa..I'm out of breath just reading this, you really take reader there with this one, Devs, making us feel the heat /rushing trying to beat the clock in the rat race of life's reality; am lovin' the fast reading pace you used here nice technique
you so capture the image of the picture~

WeLL DonE, I say!

[Ruth]

OMG! Devons, you have blasted me from my seat love! lol
This is truly awesome! Well thought out and executed like a hurricane hon!
Excellent poem, I love it!
"Doubt belief. Straighten faith." Stunning line!
You have compressed everything to do with time and its mark on life really powerfully!
I absolutely adore this piece of writing:)
Wonderful love, shall get back to my seat now and calm down lol
xx

[The Analog Kid]

I liked the cadence. My favorite lines:

"I'm the nick-of-time hero
and just before zero
I snip the right wire
Get the girl I desire!"

Good one, my brother!

[Elizabeth]

The pace is perfect for the message... fast and hurried yet still perfectly crafted. I love the constant checking of the time. This truly reads like a morning rush. And the images...Metropolis, Necropolis... perfectly balanced between showing a mundane task like getting ready for work, but also show the "grand design" of fitting into this awful mold. The last two lines really say it all, although there are many lines that I love.

[Ryan Falzon - Tymon]

This was a very fast and good poem. I think this poem shows our constant struggle against time, and we can never pause it, even for a second, for it's just giving time a head start. I especially love the part where the poet dreams that he's destined to be a hero, like in the old west movies. As usual, you slap the reader back into reality due to the fact of being late, a problem we all suffer from one time or another =). Great write as always devons, although lollita I think represents more or less the same concept, but is written better, a 90/100!

[Crowley]

Taking in a deep..deep breath after that one. Not the best poem to read when I have a hangover, but damn man, that was so good. You do have something to say about time and how we are destined to work our lives away as it is a subject you approach in a few of your poems. That was definitely a very fast downhill ride and I felt I had lived a lifetime after reading it and it awas really only one hour long. I love the fact that you are in the same image groups with me...makes for some interesting viewpoints and some very good writing I think.