On "Heidi": The Church Clock Strikes


(Inspired by the chapter in “Heidi” by Johanna Spyre wherein Heidi, after having been forcibly separated from her grandfather and Peter in the Alps and taken to a city, climbs on top of the church clock hoping to see the Alps but only sees the desolate buildings all around)


Climbed the tower to see the mountains,

Went to the clock tower to see the snow,

Thought I saw grandpa with his brown coat

And Peter whistling by too.

The church clock strikes and it’s time to sleep again. 


Woke up with the morning sun,

Asked her if she had shed her rays on Alps too,

She merely smiled and put a ray or two

The cuckoo clock strikes and it’s time to wake again.


Whistled along waiting to see Peter come

The whistle echoed back from the black rugs

How at once before the setting sun I wish you would whistle back too.


I will climb the Alps, 

swim through the Danube And walk with the sheep 

And sigh with the wavering winter winds.


Then at last will I be able

To travel along and go back to the Alps.

Before the church clock strikes and it’s time to breathe once more.


(Painting used: Melancholy Painting by Belen Sambucety <https://www.saatchiart.com/art/Painting-Melancholy/984779/3567439/view>)

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