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Thomas Hitoshi Pruiksma

author, poet, teacher, and performer

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    • THE KURAL: Tiruvalluvar’s Tirukkural
    • The Safety of Edges
    • Give, Eat, and Live: Poems of Avvaiyar
    • Body and Earth
    • A Feast for the Tongue
    • Juan Rulfo’s Pedro Páramo
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“Pocket Watch” from The Safety of Edges

March 19, 2021

A poem about gratitude and the passage of time.

POCKET WATCH

Each day when I remember
I wind the old watch
hanging from its stand
where it watches my desk

you told me you liked it
Grandpa remembered
take it you should have it
Lloyd fixed it last year
it runs well enough for its age

and it does
                     it stands
at the edge of my mornings
running and still

                              if I listen
I can hear
                  what he told me
about life
                  time passes
faster than you think

remembering his voice
I take the old watch
wind it renew it set it
on its stand

                      and dare
to enjoy the time
that I have that I know
won’t last forever

“Pocket Watch,” by Thomas Hitoshi Pruiksma
THE SAFETY OF EDGES
Marrowstone Press, Seattle

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