The Point of the Pendulum

A clock is good to keep things
going and good for spacing out
things that needn’t go so much—

its clicking oscillations
remind us our perceptions
of change are never the same

as themselves much less other
kinds of change good for contrasts
in countable intervals

each calibrated clockwork
that jars us from our dreaming
and conjures fresh makeshift times—

the sun was our first best clock
the moon taught us how to count
but haven’t you often thought

if you turned your pockets out
pocket watches phones and knives
time’s the pocket change of doubt?