Amulet #44

image: 3” diameter, watch: 3 ¾” x 3 ¼” x ¼”

2017

metal pocket watch, painted brass embellishments, holographic paper, hand braiding, rhinestones

The fourth in a subgroup of four, “Amulet #44” has been referred to as “Oculus.”  Each of the four “Oculi” were subtly different.  This version seemed to be reminiscent of an Arabic design, especially because of the addition of marquis-cut rhinestones.  At the time, I was thinking about the cyclic passage of Winter to Autumn and my cousin’s untimely passing, and I wrote a poem that follows, titled “Deborah.” “Prologues of winter retreated to shadows / As chapters of spring reawoke from repose / To guide her gray city through ice storms and snows, / Melting the riverbanks where wildflowers froze. // Her summer's green psalms and her autumn's orange prose / Turned page after page to her epilogue's close. / Her last entries pended.  Her final words rose / As her book ended, in the wake of her woes. // On crying winds, the memory of her echoes, / And so it goes year after year...so the wind blows.”