broken thing · 03 · chime hammer · spring 2003 · unknown

a clock that no longer chimes

the hands still move. the pendulum still swings. on the hour, the hammer twitches and finds no bell in the right place. the bell is there. the linkage between hammer and bell is not.

nobody recalls when it failed. one spring, the house realised it had been waiting all morning for a sound that wasn't coming. the tick remained. the chime did not. the clockmaker on the hill could fix it; the household has chosen to live with the silence at the top of each hour.

the clock now keeps the time but does not announce it. this is a different relationship to time.

field-note · on the hour, the cat looks up at the clock and waits. nobody has the heart to explain.

violin · chime · silence · clock room · retired clockmaker