The metronome - a poem by Chris Zachariou

A Shadowed Figure by a Tree

The metronome strikes

a thousand beats

tic, tic, tic, tic.

Monotonous and dull.

Across the ocean
in a country far away

a moth cocooned

works night and day

forging exquisite silk

until a day in early spring

she breaks out of her prison

and the little butterfly flies free.

She flaps her wings and starts

a storm across the sea.

But the metronome keeps

taunting the unhappy king

tic, tic, tic, tic

but it never beats a toc
it always beats tic, tic.