Minutes Lost in Death’s Doubt & Other Unplanned Sunsets

an excerpt

For a long time, I doubted death. We spent decades circling one another before I granted her the undivided attention she so desperately coveted.

Tick, tock, tick, tock. That clock is distracting. Confusing my chain of thought. It’s hard to find the beginning, so let’s start with the clock.

* * *

I’m old enough to recall when clocks hung freely and proud with purpose. Ornamental yet functional, they marked the passage of time for all to see. Today, no one wears a watch anymore, and wall clocks have become scarce. They’ve faded away, along with video cassette rentals and children sent outside to play unsupervised on the streets until dusk. With all of us focused on our phones, the face of time is no longer an obligatory display in public spaces, it seems. How little we all know. Visible ticking clock or not, death is in the minutes.