Tick-tack, tick-tack

Tik-Tak-Tik-Tak
Tick -tack -tik-tack,
But everything-
not like must be.
But  don’t talk,
 not say a word about
TV is not Modern Talking;
You afraid to lose your token,
You are in the state of worry:
What the tuxedo reaction go?
But King long  ago
 that clothes left
And it rustle with the wind
Just  birds think:
What  does is it mean
Is it Scarecrow?
Or is it a man?`

Review on this poem

This poem “Tick-tack, tick-tack” reads like a fragment of stream-of-consciousness writing where time, language, and social perception break into a restless, unstable voice. It does not follow a conventional narrative or strict syntactic structure, but instead builds its effect through repetition, fragmentation, and shifting linguistic registers.
The opening repetition “Tik-Tak-Tik-Tak / Tick-tack-tik-tack” immediately establishes the dominant motif of time. However, time here is not orderly or mechanical in a neutral sense; it becomes anxious, almost intrusive, suggesting pressure rather than structure. The broken phrasing that follows (“But everything / not like must be”) reinforces a sense of dislocation — a world that has lost its coherence or expected order.
A key feature of the poem is its mixing of linguistic codes and registers. English appears non-standard, sometimes grammatically unstable, which is not simply an error but contributes to the aesthetic of fragmentation. This instability mirrors the thematic uncertainty: communication itself seems unreliable, broken, or distorted.
The reference to “TV is not Modern Talking” introduces a cultural contrast between media presence and pop-cultural memory, but it remains intentionally unclear and associative rather than explanatory. Similarly, images such as “lose your token” and “state of worry” suggest a psychological and social anxiety tied to control, identity, and belonging, though not fully defined in logical terms.
The poem then shifts toward a more symbolic register: “King long ago / that clothes left / And it rustle with the wind.” This evokes an image of abandoned authority or outdated power, where symbols of status remain only as empty forms. The final transformation into perception — birds questioning whether it is “Scarecrow or a man” — brings the poem to a point of existential ambiguity. The boundary between human and artificial, real and constructed, becomes unstable.
Overall, the poem can be read as a reflection on disorientation in contemporary perception: time is mechanical but unsettling, language is fractured, and identity is no longer clearly distinguishable from its symbols. Its strength lies not in clarity or narrative coherence, but in its ability to evoke a mental state of uncertainty and cognitive drift.