The Ferry October 17 04 [inconclusive, 1/2 baked]

Boy did you ever missed the boat. An islander
Who’d rather you not know the real time
Displays his time-piece. A venerable watch,
reliable silver, but leather band ratty. How
shabby-gentile this time-piece! The watch
that says you’ve missed the boat, so better run.
So you run, but there’s no boat on the dock.
So you’ve missed it. But in the restaurant
The clock with the Coca-Cola sign says no,
You still have too much time. He was wrong,
wrong, this resident of the isle of the blessed.
Count on his never winding watches. He’s better
At winding his watch where he’s from, away.
At his home, away from here, he may wind it
very punctually. But here, how lazy he can be.
Him with his rickety bike with its broken bell,
His false chronometer that couldn’t time a flea.
Now how will you kill your time? How long
can you sit in the restaurant, how many drinks,
all the time you thought you had collapsed?
What was the man who didn’t wind his watch
Thinking on that shabby genteel child’s bike?

Unwound, uncoiled, his hands and dials never fail.
A few weeks riding his rickety bike to the beach.
Such watches should be unwound in some enclave.
But what about you? Why should you be late for him?
You’ve missed it already, he gestures said,
Silently he was disinviting you to stay.