The Clock Tower Rebellion

**"The Clock Tower Rebellion"**

They said a woman’s place was *in the home*—

so we built homes inside our fists.

Every hour, the town square clock strikes,

but the gears remember:

in ’43, the factory girls

stuffed their aprons with gunpowder,

let corset wires become shrapnel,

turned looms into barricades

while singing *"A stitch in time saves none of us."*

Now the minute hand sticks

at 12:07 forever—

the exact moment

the foreman’s watch exploded,

the exact second

the pregnant widow

took up the rivet gun

and didn’t miss.

**Tour Guide’s Footnote:**

*"Notice the bullet holes

they painted over with roses.

The new mayor calls it ‘folk art.’

We call it ‘receipts.’"*

Little girls rub their fingers

over the clock’s frozen face,

leaving smudges like fingerprints

on a verdict.

One whispers to the cobblestones:

*"When I grow up,

I want to be

a complication."*