Clocks!
All the clocks can't agree on who is the best!
Lord Twister the First, fine collector of clocks
Has a room laid aside for his ticks and his tocks.
But the clocks always bicker: an ongoing quest
As they try to decide whose assembly is best.
“I’m handsome and grand, a priceless antique,”
States the Grandfather clock, but he suffers critique:
“Old man, you’re creaky, your pendulum’s slow,
Your time’s running out and you’re just here for show.
You need winding up or else time will stand still,
Your chimes’ out of sync and your clangs’ weak and ill.”
“I’m vintage as well,” brags the sleek pocket watch,
“Yet I’m practical too, open me at the notch…
Hold time in your hands and enjoy my smooth grain
Or keep me for show on a necklace or chain.”
“You old fashioned lot!” laughs the digital one.
“I think we all know that it’s me who’s most fun!
I can glow in the dark, I can set an alarm
I talk too, you know, and my voice works a charm…
‘Wake up Lord Twister, good morning,’ I say
‘My multiple functions are here on display.’”
“You bunch of vain phonies!” the sundial says
“Without windings or batteries you’re useless I guess…
Whereas me? I’ll still function wherever I be,
For sunshine and shadow’s my time telling key!”
“You’re hopeless at night!” the pocket watch mocks.
“Don’t forget me!” chirps the last of the clocks…
“Cuckoo,” she calls, “I’m the best one! No doubt!
Children love me when I pop out and shout:
‘Cuckoo!’ So happy! I light up a room!
I make people smile when they’re covered in gloom.”
“But you drive us all mad!” the Grandfather moans,
“With all of your fidgety, twittering tones!”
The arguing pauses for midnight must chime
And the one thing clocks humbly agree on is time!
POEMS FOR KIDS WRITTEN BY PHOEBE COGHLAN
© Phoebe Coghlan 2018
LET’S CHAT ABOUT THE POEM ~ IDEAS FOR TALKING WITH KIDS
Pride, Over-Confidence
1. Do you think, with their arguments, that the clocks are convincing any of the other clocks that they themselves are the best? Why or why not?
2. An objective truth is something that is true to everyone. A subjective truth is something that is true to the person saying it. Do you think the clocks are saying objective or subjective truths when they tell each other why they think they are the best? Do you think they all could be right? (and wrong, too?)