gremlins have dropped by
our snowbound house
taking a mad March
break from playing
havoc with aircraft
and fiddled with our clocks
quite a picture
mad March gremlins
using our clocks
for violins
in some zany orchestra
up in the belfry
with the bats
but heck
when time came
for us to
spring ahead
for daylight saving
our digital bedroom clocks
refused such frivolity
with a hidden store
of Luddite insistence
and defied all attempts
to influence
their staid old standard time
like a chain-anchored
steel pocket watch
in the vest pocket
of a solemn
train conductor
they espouse the old
so it’s
down with the
new-fangled atomic
and up with the
steam-powered—no—
spring powered
hand-wound
reliable old
independent time
by gosh and by golly
This is timely (sorry) and fun, a mellow read on a Sunday. I like the gremlins and love the train conductor. We have my great-grandfather’s gold engineer’s watch, a thing of beauty and precision.
Strange that your non-strikers are the ones that went on strike.
So many people detest daylight saving time, but I’m happy seeing the sun still in the sky at 6:00 p.m. Summer can’t come quickly enough.
I was watching something on the Discovery Channel HD (which really impresses me) and saw a very elaborate small steam engine from the nineteenth century. It was polished and beautifully painted, and oh so functional looking. I think it translated into the poem a bit for me. I know I had it in mind when I thought of the conductor’s watch. My wife and I went west to visit our daughter in Vancouver, and took the train from Toronto for three days and nights. It was a wonderful adventure which I highly recommend. I posted photos from the trip on a travel web site: http://www.canadatravelblog.ca/logblog/
Thanks for the link. Train travel is wonderful. You must have seen spectacular country on that trip. I’ve gone across the US by train, but the terrain didn’t become particularly arresting until we reached the green midwest.
I share your interest in oldtime rail engines, am also fascinated by old farming and logging equipment that’s been restored. Must be a sign of approaching geezerette-hood.