Keeping A Close Watch On Life

Nowadays timepieces are cheap
and often sold second hand.
With their last owners they work
for relatively short periods of time.
This has often happens to me;
I then keep them for the straps
which may yet find further use.

The first watch I ever had
was given to me by parents,
at age fourteen when adult fares
were charged on buses.
Without supervision
I had to know when to travel
and what bus to catch,
tmy parents still handed out
the bus fare money, and slowly at that.

The watch was given to me to encourage
my sense of 'being a grown up',
and for six months it told the time.
After that it was right only twice a day,
I knew how it felt. When it stopped
my long hoped for sense of adulthood
stalled with it. I was not given another
and by myself could not afford one, either.

The symbols for 'being a grown up'
that would last would have to be set
around less mechanical and financial
objectives and objects, things prone
to entropy; I had to invest in things
that would not break down.

The times before such signs
as I could believe in arrived
were a very long in coming.