the clock maker

I've been fixing clocks
my entire
life
he says. my home was my shop.
he spreads his arms out to show
me the clocks
on his walls and work bench.
you name a clock
and I've fixed it. go ahead,
name one.
timex, I blurt out.
no, he says.
that's a watch,
not a clock.
what about a swatch?
he looks at me and closes
his heavy eyelids.
that's a watch too he says.
cuckoo clocks.
grandfather clocks,
those are my
specialties. anything from
the black forest
in Germany.
what about those clock
watch computer things
you wear on your wrist
I ask,
tapping my empty wrist.
ever fix one of those.
you have to leave now he says.
as the sound of a cuckoo clock
starts clucking,
the little bird popping
out of his door.
I look at my phone for
the time.
ten minutes late, i tell him.