Frozen cobblestones crack under boot heel
Brass gear teeth wait in dormant steel
Sedum album sleeps in mortar seams
Mainspring rests in oil-slick dreams
Root systems map the dark below
Escapement counts the hidden flow
Vernalization needs its time
Regulation finds its rhyme
Brass roots hold through winter's bite
Time keeps turning toward the light
Quercus waits in frozen earth
Pendulum measures each rebirth
Brass roots deep where shadows freeze
Spring winds the clock with gentle ease
Pinion turns in grease-black cold
Betula bark turns silver-gold
Hands that filed each tooth by lamplight
Fingers traced root hairs at midnight
Gear train hums deep in the silence
Mycorrhizae wake from sleep
Anchor fork and pallet stone
Cambium builds its ring alone
Brass roots hold through winter's bite
Time keeps turning toward the light
Quercus waits in frozen earth
Pendulum measures each rebirth
Brass roots deep where shadows freeze
Spring winds the clock with gentle ease
Sempervivum clings to wall
Balance wheel hears winter's call
Rosette tight in ice-locked grip
Hairspring coils in patient slip
I speak in Latin to the stone
I measure seconds not my own
Taxus baccata knows the hour
Tourbillon fights the temp'ral power
Both of us serve slower laws
Written in root and gear and pause
Brass roots hold through winter's bite
Time keeps turning toward the light
Quercus waits in frozen earth
Pendulum measures each rebirth
Brass roots deep where shadows freeze
Spring winds the clock with gentle ease
Master's bench sits empty now
Nursery beds beneath the plow
Apprentice walks the alley alone
Botanist tends the silent zone
Ticking hearts in wood and vein
Green fuse burns through frost and rain
Brass roots hold through winter's bite
Time keeps turning toward the light
Quercus waits in frozen earth
Pendulum measures each rebirth
Brass roots deep where shadows freeze
Spring winds the clock with gentle ease
Brass roots deep where shadows freeze
Spring winds the clock with gentle ease
Root and gear in silence grow
Time blooms where the cold winds blow