A Nursery Rhyme

as it might have been written by T. S. Eliot

Because time will not run backwards

Because time

Because time will not run

                                        Hickory dickory

In the last minute of the first hour

I saw the mouse ascend the ancient timepiece,

Claws whispering like wind in dry hyacinths.

One o’clock,

The street lamp said,

‘Remark the mouse that races towards the carpet.’

And the unstilled wheel still turning

                                                        Hickory dickory

                                                        Hickory dickory

dock