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 winters retreated to shadows / As chapters of springs reawoke from repose, / To guide her gray city through ice storms and snows, / Melting the riverbanks where wildflowers froze. // Her summers’ green psalms and her autumns’ orange prose / Turned page after page to her epilogues’ close. / Between a winter and spring, her final words rose / As her book of life ended in the wake of her woes. // The memory of her, like crying winds, still bellows, / And so it goes, year to year; and so the wind blows.”