Unearned

It’s sat in the drawer for a year or more,

ticking away near the draft from the floor.

She bought it for me when the winter was deep,

a promise I knew that I wouldn't keep.

I was counting the days til I made my escape,

measuring boxes and buying the tape.

She fastened the leather around my left wrist,

while I thought of the things I would never have missed.

Today it went quiet. The battery’s spent.

I wonder if that was the way that it went.

The second hand twitches but won’t make the climb,

stuck in a loop at the end of its time.