Aram Saroyan: The Clock in Literature

The Clock in Literature

BY ARAM SAROYAN B. 1943

“Would you mind

If I headed up early?”

Says the husband

To his young wife.

“Follow when you like.”

Later that evening

The beautiful face

And exquisite limbs

Will rise from the table

Of the Southern inn

Having been spied

By the antihero

Across the room

Reading an indifferent book.

Oh, quick — 

Let a storm kill the light!

But you might as well say it

To a wall.

We can’t change

A single

Silver setting, or

Even by one day

Reduce

The bright full moon.

The clock in literature

Holds that moon.

“I know I can’t say

A single thing to stop you,”

Says the old man at table

To the suddenly risen girl.

“But sleep on it, will you?”

Not now — 

Not ever.

The clock in literature

Holds the ancient rune.

“I wonder if I might

Have a word with you,”

Says the antihero

To the lissome

Dark-eyed angel.

Source: Poetry (March 2015).