A Moment in Life Twice Lost to Time
The Swiss watch is my paradigm
Residing now ‘neath Tampa Bay
A moment in life twice lost to time
The gift, from a wall of ice to climb
In Luxembourg where I did stay
The Swiss watch becomes my paradigm
Research belaying the banker's crime
Through valleys green, o'er bridges grey
A moment in life twice lost to time
While belching diesels share their grime
And church bells call all souls to pray
This watch, my truest paradigm
In this city from another time
In Europe's heart I found my way
A moment in life twice lost to time
Returning from this land sublime
My walls and battlements fell away
Rodania watch, my paradigm
A moment in life twice lost to time
Cori MacNaughton
2 March 2000
This poem was my first, and to date only, attempt at a villanelle.
The watch was a birthday gift from a doctoral candidate in Luxembourg, for whom I was acting as research assistant, which I lost years later, while sailing with my then-husband in Tampa Bay.
I have read this in public on several occasions, and it has appeared in print on my own website (currently offline and being revamped), and on: https://hellopoetry.com/cori-macnaughton/poems/title/.