My given name is Hortense, and I am an English Professor,
I love my job and my life, and to do my best I endeavor.

I am popular with my students, as I also am with friends;
And I have a loving family, like springtime joyful trends!

I am shrewd and practical, and am impatient with silliness,
As the blooms of August each strive, to be the prettiest.

I love nature and wild things, and I do visit them often,
As the moon visits all nighttime, the landscape so to soften.

I divide all my free time, between work friends and family,
As the hours are divided, between sun and moonbeam fantasy!

One weekend summer day, as I was returning from the woods,
Adults gave me kindly smiles, as bliss wafts from dogwoods.

And when I stopped at the store, a man called me darling,
I thought him very fresh, as a rosy dawn when birds sing.

When I finally arrived home, and I glanced into a mirror,
I saw pigtails and bangs, and my own diminutive miniature!

What in the ever loving world, had just then come to pass?
I wondered upon seeing, an old friend in the looking glass!

Now I totally understood, that guileless man at the store,
Who must've really loved children, but child I was no more.

As an English professor I knew, its mechanics in every sense,
And this also made me proficient, in all the matters of tense.

Like the hollyhocks of summer, never look back at yesterday,
For the present vivid moment is all, although it cannot stay!

Soon noticing my wristwatch, I found its face was shattered,
Today I'd had a slight fall, and thought it hadn't mattered.

Both of the hands were missing, and time it could not sustain,
As the rosy sun rises in hope, to be chased by driving rain!

I read and watched television, had dinner and went to bed,
For moonlit dreams had beckoned me, into the midnight ahead.

I heard a nightingale singing, and it lulled me into sleep.
Day held disappointment, but I was soothed by night so deep.

The next day dawned with colors, and I arose quite refreshed,
And as my mirror informed me, an adult body I again possessed!

I wasn't sure what to think, but suspected time was affected,
By the watch I had broken, as if my time it once protected.

So off to work I strolled, in a more peaceful frame of mind,
As golden memories bring joys, of watching the years rewind!

The ensuing days were ordinary, but when another weekend came,
I began a walk as a woman, but at its end I was a child again!

I was perplexed as to the reason, for these weekend wonders,
As hummingbirds perplexed by chill, search for other summers.

For the world's time stayed normal, whereas mine was broken,
Missing a beat once a weekend, then resuming its regular motion.

As before my childhood lasted, entirely for one moonlit night,
And I decided to have that ole watch fixed, to end my odd plight!

So the next sunshine morning, as butterflies floated drowsily,
I took my watch to a jeweler, as the blooms nodded soundlessly.

After it had been fixed, I waited anxiously for the weekend,
As we wander in lustrous dreams, to see where a rainbow ends.

Week's end brought no changes, and none in weekends after that.
In my yard I buried the watch deeply, in waterproof case intact.

And all should be well now, for from my home I won't be moving,
As restless young party nights, that never stop their grooving!

Though my life was once altered, by a quirk of time or fate,
Sweet memory is past again, since the record was set straight!