Separated by Billions of Years

Spring was a grandfather clock
That exploded, unclocklike!
Summer’s all its scattered gears.

Autumn sweeps them together—
Fall, death, the great tidiers
Of Earth’s seasonal patches.

Winter is the clockmaker,
Aching, brooding tinkerer,
Setting bits in order, tick,

And then tock, and then tick and
Boom! Spring blows it up again.
Tell us why it is time bursts

Its own rhythms in abrupt
Change after lengthy delays,
And we’ll know what time it is.