Dispatches for the Colonial Office: Hands without a Watch

Wednesday, July 29, 2026

Lawrence Hall

Hands without a Watch

Thanks to Mike Hauser for his idea about a watch without hands

Hands without a watch have nowhere to point

They are neither formless nor void, but still

But they cannot describe an orbit of time

Nor convey structure to a seeker of order

Hands without a watch have nowhere to go

Unloved they float without meaning or being

In desolate freedom without meaning or being

In emptiness without meaning or being

Hands without a watch cannot frame the ordinals

Or quantify the hours in ordered cardinals

Dispatches for the Colonial Office