Immanuary

.

Source

So then I thought to find the time
By counting out the sands,
Or trying to glean the meaning
From a watch that had no hands…

A pretty wordpicture
With its broad strokes of frustration,
But it just isn’t right.

My watch&deskclock&wallclock&carclock
Are handless, immanuary.
Not even a finger or a hangnail,
Yet I can give you the time to the
(3… 2… 1… MARK)
Second.

D I G I T I Z E D
We’ve digitalized our lives
So that we may digitalately
Mark the passing moments
Immanuarily.

We used to give
Someone in trouble
A hand;
Now we just give them
T H E _ D I G I T

I wrote this many years ago; Mark Starlin wrote something to trigger it in my memory about making up words:

A Chip on His Shoulder

I remembered making up “immanuary,” but it turns out I also manufactured “digitalately” and “immanuarily.”