The Watch: A Window to the Past, Present, and Future

Dr. Sanjukta’s poem highlights the fleeting nature of time and the importance of making the most of every moment, exclusively for Different Truths.

“It’s time you had a watch,”
She said,
In middle-school
My watch-less right wrist
Was a butt of ridicule

Now the watch
Clasping my right wrist
Watches me more than
I watch its face
Framed in a crystal disc

Now I watch
More than any watch
Has ever watched
It’s hands counting time
Incalculable.

My watch on my wrist
A loyal wristband
Like a firm friend indeed
Deeds and misdeeds
Need and greed
Tasks and masks
Upset time and space
As the watch clasps me

The watch counts on
As I recount the many discounts
That time could have offered
But never did.

I now watch my watch
Ticking the moments
It’s not the same watch
Or is it?

Many have come and gone
Forgotten, abandoned
As the new watch watches
The new times
In a trance of
Transformation

Picture design, Anumita Roy

Dr Sanjukta Dasgupta

Dr Sanjukta Dasgupta is a poet, short story writer, critic, and translator. She was a General Council of Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi, member and the Convenor English Advisory Board Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi. She is the President of the Intercultural Poetry and Performance Library, Kolkata and has twenty-six published books. Her poems have been translated into German, Serbian, Bengali, Hindi, Punjabi, Kashmiri, and Tamil.

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