Tick tock, tick tock, life’s ardent beat,
Each face, each clock, the same, but not.
Keen hands mark time’s juncture complete.

The sun and moon once again meet,
Yesterday, in the logbook slot.
Tick tock, tick tock, life’s ardent beat.

Minutes, hours, a day’s gay fete,
Ignored seconds, drops in a pot.
Keen hands mark time’s juncture complete.

Wrinkles simulate rows and pleats,
And petals open, fall and rot.
Tick tock, tick tock, life’s ardent beat.

Tragedy befalls; feigns defeat.
Time delivers the healing shot.
Keen hands mark time’s juncture complete.

Earth spins, revolutions replete.
Father Time continues his trot.
The clock heeds not the tether and cleat,
For keen hands mark time’s juncture complete.

Source of Inspiration
Yet another Villanelle!  But I thoroughly enjoy writing Villanelles, made popular in France in the 1700’s.  The challenge is the form and rhyming expectations.  But that is what makes it fun!  It affords me the opportunity to play word games trying to come up with a list of words that rhyme is the first step.  For years now, I have saved a file with napkins or deposit skips or whatever, with phrases scribbled in any empty space, inspirations for a poem.  This one was written around an old unfinished crossword puzzle.  Funny!
The Clock of Life was published in Best Poets of 2014.