Counting backward now
Counting down
Tallied marks like a prisoner
etching a cell wall
Maybe they are not days
But moments
Gone mad or glad
clawing through bark
Time runs
from top to bottom
Glissading down a slope
Collecting a calendar year
Into an hour glass
A window sash inching toward the sill
A door drawing in to the hinge
Counting down
Stars appearing like mile markers
as twilight circles
As symbol and sign
Day pulls the blinds
puts to rest and hovers over
Hums a steady rhythm
Keeping more time
Like a heartbeat
Drawing blood
Commissioning crimson
Another round
Completing a circuit
Encompassing a life through
veiny streets
Capillary cul-de-sacs
Counting down
Counting sheep now
As eyelids faint and give way
On a day that leads
To another day
That leads to the end of
A time I survived
24 hour rings around
A docket’s courtyard
Where time carried on
As I counted down
SHE GILDS THE LILY: a lavish waste of words and wonder 