Household clocks echo Big Ben carillons
from deep-throated bong to tintinnabulation

Bells mark time, leave not a scratch, strike
hours from the calendar

that box of boxes of yet smaller boxes, like
wooden dolls my mother brought from Poland

Stopped clocks dropped their chimes

Two years scratched from the playbook

She’s home: restart the echoing bells
bells, bells, bells, bells, bells