{"id":5774,"date":"2025-12-01T23:02:52","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T03:02:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/?page_id=5774"},"modified":"2025-12-01T23:02:52","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T03:02:52","slug":"passing-cline","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/fall-2025-digital-lit\/passing-cline\/","title":{"rendered":"Passing \u2014 Sara Cline \u2014 Fall 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Merrilee by Donald Patten<\/p><\/div>\n

Passing<\/h1>\n

Sara Cline<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I.
\nI\u2019ve been thinking
\nabout the difference
\nbetween counting up and counting down
\nan hour until she gets on the plane
\nor
\nan hour until my pot roast is done.
\nan hour before the ceremony starts
\nand I\u2019m not even out of bed.
\nan hour left to evacuate our home. an hour
\nbetween me and your midnight kiss.
\nan hour waiting for the doctor,
\nthe thin paper crinkling and sticking to my legs.
\nan hour watching you sleep. god, it goes fast.
\nan hour of watching Friends re-runs yet again.
\nan hour waiting to hear back
\nthat yes, you\u2019re alive.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

II.
\nan hour to kill, an hour to spare
\nI have mercy on my hours
\nsave time, save time.
\ntired of time spent shaving?
\nget laser hair removal!
\na stitch in time, a stitch in time.
\nmicrowave. multitask.
\ncut corners, bear down on the gas.
\niSpy with my little eye ninety nine bottles of
\npicket signs in manicured lawns that read
\nmillions of hours are killed every day
\nand for just 99 cents a day, you too
\ncan save the life of a precious hour
\nI don\u2019t want to be involved anymore
\nthis time on my hands is hard good bad and borrowed
\nwasted and flying and running and lost
\nand I am not made to be murderer nor savior
\no\u2019 hickory dickory deist god
\nI am simply a bystander<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

III.
\ngrandfather clock and father time strike twelve
\ndaughters, their daylight skipped
\nstroke of midnight she plucks her sea glass slipper
\nblunted of all its edge and frothy it is
\nindistinguishable it is the cataract
\nin your mother\u2019s eye as she sings sweetly that
\nyour biological clock is watched \/ is boiled \/ is right twice a day
\nthe mockingbird empties the cradle \/ watching you fly
\ndown kaleidoscope the rabbit howls to the bloodied
\nmoon hooded and pockmarked and pulling
\nyou who are a woman now \/ you whose face like marble
\nthe crows will walk \/ erupt butterflies \/ cocoon of tarnished lace
\nyou \/ one stroke born in the nick of yesterdays
\na cigarette ashing unto itself<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sara Cline<\/b> is a queer, autistic poet born and bred in Plano, Texas. She holds an MFA from the University of Washington and is the recipient of an Academy of American Poets Prize. Her work has been platformed by <\/span>Poets.org<\/span><\/i><\/a>, <\/span>Eff-able Anthology<\/span><\/i>, and <\/span>A VELVET GIANT<\/span><\/i>, among others.<\/span><\/p>\n

Donald Patten<\/b> is an artist and cartoonist from Belfast, Maine. He creates oil paintings, illustrations, ceramics and graphic novels. His art has been exhibited in galleries throughout Maine. To view his online portfolio, visit @donald.patten on Instagram.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Back to issue<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Passing Sara Cline   I. I\u2019ve been thinking about the difference between counting up and counting down an hour until she gets on the plane or an hour until my Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7350,"featured_media":0,"parent":5625,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5774"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7350"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5774"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5774\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6049,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5774\/revisions\/6049"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}