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Clocktower Fable
By Oscar S. Cisneros
"Why the dour mood?" said the hobo to the elf.
"You sit here by the tower all by your lonesome self."
"I've knocked so many times," said the elf, "that I might ask
"For the owner of the tower to aid me in my task.
All I hear's the clock and its never failing chimes;
I've knocked and knocked and knocked to have a word with Father Time.
I wish he'd stop the ticking of those clockwork machinations
And reverse the spinning gears, those cruelest of gyrations.
Each grain of sand that falls in his careless hourglass
Adds a boulder to the mountain between me and my past.
Desperate, I'll climb the face of this clocktower
And wrench upon the arms till they return me to the hour
When my princess was my queen and nothing stood between
The warmth of her embrace and her kisses on my face.
For she was true and honest, the sweetest lady pure.
Brave she was in love even as she was demur.
Playful and capricious, yet even, calm and stable.
Her beauty had no match. Perhaps you've heard the fable
Of the woman who could halt a demon's spoken lies
With the kindness of her voice and the innocence of her eyes.
So you see my anger grows each time I go to knock.
I'd tear this tower down if I could only stop the clock."
At length the hobo said, "Burdened is you past.
How sad for you my lad that you lost your lovely lass.
But is time to blame for the longing of your heart?
Surely there's a reason why the two of you did part.
Look now to the future for time does heal so much.
Perhaps her lovely hair again you might just touch.
In the past leave your troubles, the heartbreak and the pain.
Take the sweetness and the kindness that you might one day love again."
With that the hobo bowed and from a pocket took a key
And slipped into his tower never again to be seen.
