Clockwatcher

Friday, two o'clock, and slow
The slideshow's got nine slides to go
I nod along, I hold my ground
But half of me is homeward bound
Outside the glass the light runs gold
The kind of gold that can't be sold
And past the cars, across the line
Two days are waiting, wholly mine

No alarm to break the dark
The dog, the leash, the empty park
Records spinning while I cook
An hour lost inside a book
The bike, the yard, the hose, the sun
The little kingdom I have won

Three more hours, two more calls
One last lap around these halls
Then nobody owns my time
I can hear Saturday from here
I can hear it loud and clear

This feeling has an older twin
Last period, the clock's slow spin
A bell about to fire the gun
Two days of grass and nothing done
The same drum beating in my chest
Still counting down like all the rest

And maybe Sunday, if it rains
I'll build a song from what remains
Some humming thing nobody needs
Except the kid it slowly feeds
Two days without a single mask
Being me: the only task

Three more hours, two more calls
One last lap around these halls
Then nobody owns my time
I can hear Saturday from here
I can hear it loud and clear

The meeting breaks, the room exhales
The afternoon lets out its sails
Two more hours
I can wait
It's already Saturday in here

Two more hours, one more call
Gold is climbing up the wall
And soon nobody owns my time
I can hear Saturday from here
It's already loud and clear

I type with half a mind to spare
The other half's already there
A yard, a bike, an open door
And nobody keeping score