The Persistence of Memory

April sunshine has given me the courage to take on the challenge of writing Ekphrastic poems. I have never attempted to translate the emotion from paintings, drawings, sculptures, or other visual works of art into words. The challenge will require me to dig deep to tap into the passions such works of art create inside a person. Most of what I write will be speculative. There will be times when I will place myself into the mind of the artist. Still other times, I will express the emotions I experience gazing at the work of art. If I get creative, I might even tell the story from an element within the artwork. This Ekphrastic poem is based on a painting by Salvador Dali entitled The Persistence of Memory.  

The Persistence of Memory

Tick, tock, tick I can feel myself run down,

One tick and tock at a time.

The ants make themselves at home on my surface,

I don’t even dare chime.

My nature I am forced to suppress

To ease the artists scheme

To stop all time by his dream.

He plans to melt me with his mind,

Without any reason or rhythm.

Floundering here on a seashore painted in blue and brown.

I am the closed clock

The only one able to tick and tock

There is a monster asleep on the sand

Held down by a melted clock

Who was once my co-worker keeping time

I don’t think the evil artist can understand

He needs us to mark of the persistence of memory

The surrealistic monster with brush in hand

Dreams his toxic dream into infinity,

He can be as advent-garde as he wants to be

As long as he lets me tick and tock

Because I am a unique metal clock.

The one who haunts his hallucination.

The one who refuses to die.

I am more than a nighttime manifestation,

The single one he cannot fry.

I am the essence of time.

Who is Molly Shea?

Molly Shea is an accomplished fictional short story writer from Indiana who writes short stories and novels about a fictional town called Tecumseh.  To read more of her short stories and adventures, click here.

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