Photo by noor Younis on Unsplash
n. A machine of great moral value to man, allaying his concern for the future by reminding him what a lot of time remains to him.
—Ambrose Bierce
Hung first in memory on elementary school walls
circular, black and white god, master of bells
I command subjects, turn math to English, history
to lunch, govern teachers and students alike in
my slow crawl through middle and high school
periods. I answer the morning’s first question
am the last concern at night. You set me
then upset me with daily, flailing strikes
snooze through thirty years of careers
where you first learn I can be a verb—
each quarter hour turned to quarters, then
dollars—then retirement and too little time
for the part-time Edwin Watts job, favorite
pastimes, before Alzheimer’s seals its fist
transforms me to a bracelet on your wrist.
Jill Michelle's honors include the 2023 NORward Prize for Poetry and a Best of the Net nomination for the title poem of her debut collection, Underwater (Riot in Your Throat, 2025). Her latest poems are forthcoming in Black Coffee Review, Lips Poetry Magazine, Molecule: A Tiny Lit Mag and Poetry Breakfast. She teaches at Valencia College in Orlando, Florida. Find more of her work at byjillmichelle.com.