A Broken Watch

A man is teaching his child
How to tell time
And I find this to be
Very, very sweet

He's teaching the child
On the train
While the child's mother
Sits across the aisle
Taking a nap
Probably had a long day at work

You can always tell how hard a worker someone is
By the way they sleep

My father used to sleep
Like it was an art form
Like he was posing for a portrait
'The Sleeping Man'

My father used to carry
A broken watch around with him

Like the Mad Hatter in 'Alice in Wonderland'

He would say--'This watch is always correct two times a day'

Then he would laugh

My father was never late for anything
Not a day of his life

It's our fathers who teach us about time
I'm not sure why that is

Father Time--maybe that has something to do with it
Maybe that responsibility was placed in their hands

I always judge the type person somebody is
But how they handle time
And if they handle it poorly
I feel very badly for them
And I think--

They didn't have a father like mine
Or like that father on the train
Whispering conspiratorially
With his child

My father used to ride the trains with me
And then one day...

His watch started working
After he was gone

Isn't that a funny thing?

We found out that he lost his job
For nothing
For no reason
He was always on time

And they took the job anyway

He said to them--'But I'm always here.  I'm always early--if anything'

But they didn't care

People stopped valuing time
The way that they used to

And my father knew what that meant
A man with no job

A man whose only skill
Was being on time

And he jumped in front of the train
That was supposed to take him home

They gave us the watch back
And it worked

It beat like a newborn's heart
Strong and consistent

I gave it away

What would I do with a watch like that?
A watch that keeps perfect time?

Time isn't worth anything anymore, you know

It's all for show

So a broken watch and a watch that works
They're both the same now

So I'd prefer to have neither
To have nothing
To let my wrists stay empty

That's something I do for my father
As a sort of remembrance of him

I don't honor time

Why should I?

Nobody else does