Veneer

A man sits here silently,

Listening to a clock tick.

As if it spoke of a place

where trees grew untouched by man

where the ocean was still blue

where kids knew nursery rhymes

where animals came alive

where the air was soft and pale.

The man's eyes grow wider now,

as the clock tells an old tale

of the world the man lived in

the man’s mind became quite still

of the realization

that his world will never have

untouched trees or the blue seas

or lively children again.

The clock tells him he is right

that the world is a wasteland now

and he will forever be

sealed to the clocks reminders

as it is he who caused the

broken world, covered with an

invisible veneer of time

and the tick that haunts

the man's ears.