The Clerk of Time
The Clerk of Time
kept bubbles
in a locked drawer.
Not gold.
Not tulips.
Not stocks.
Evidence.
He had watched men
stand on ladders
made of tomorrow
and call it architecture.
Pity was not
his department.
Accuracy was.
Early fools
had little archive.
Their mercy
was ignorance.
Later fools
had shelves.
South Sea
File opened.
A company
of enormous value.
Value undisclosed.
Men bought
the sealed box.
The sea
gave no statement.
Loss:
general.
Lesson:
mislaid.
1929
File reopened.
Ticker.
Shoes.
Soup.
Years.
Loss:
80 percent.
Recovery:
entered
at a future table.
Bread:
political.
Memory:
defective.
Nifty Fifty
Fifty fine names.
IBM.
Coca-Cola.
Permanent growth.
Institutions
stacked them
on the safest shelf.
The shelf failed
from the weight
of its labels.
Loss:
65 percent,
inflation adjusted.
The Clerk
entered the brands
under weather.
Japan
File expanded.
Sony.
Toyota.
Land as scripture.
Shares:
65 times earnings.
Descent:
20 years.
Recovery:
35.
A market
returned to its old high
like a man
coming home
to a house
from which the chairs
had long been removed.
Dot-com
The internet
was real.
That worsened
the charge.
NASDAQ:
minus 82.
Amazon:
minus 92.
Decade:
lost.
Annual return:
minus 3.
Beanbags:
remaining.
Staff:
not.
Present File
The Clerk
opened the largest drawer.
AI.
The machine
learned prayer
and immediately
sold subscriptions.
The room applauded.
Compute.
Moat.
Scale.
Future earnings.
Total addressable universe.
The universe
asked to be excluded.
Spending exceeded
near-term value
by a distance
usually reserved
for theology
or defence procurement.
The old phrase returned:
This time
is different.
The Clerk
underlined
time.
Edge
Now the world
leans over
its own invoice.
High flyers:
minus 70,
not remarkable.
Recovery:
30 years,
weather permitting.
Layoffs:
pending.
Consumption:
revised.
School fees:
arrears.
Houses:
listening.
Retirement:
removed
from the calendar.
Most will lose
the furniture,
then the room,
then the story
they told
about the furniture.
Archive Glass
The Clerk
opened the forward file.
It was not prophecy.
It was recurrence
with better stationery.
He saw screens
become mirrors.
He saw men
refreshing ruin.
He saw daughters
asking
why the holiday
was cancelled.
He saw banks
using calm fonts.
He saw ministers
announce resilience.
He saw companies
bury people
under the word
adjustment.
He saw dinner
become arithmetic.
He saw couples
divide ruin
into two columns.
Closing Entry
Cause:
future hunger.
Symptom:
short memory.
Accelerant:
certainty.
Instrument:
a machine
taught to imitate God
for monthly billing.
Treatment:
gravity.
Prognosis:
file closed.
The Clerk
stamped the page.
No appeal.
No witness.
No amendment.
Only Time,
collecting signatures
from the dead.
F.S.F.