2025
The Tourbillon
On Status & Constraint
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The Tourbillon
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Did I take the rope off my neck
just to put it around my wrist?
Inorganic elements
mimic a strangling fig vine
constricting the blood flow
that I thought would set me free
but now—
it is just a weight
around my wrist
A reminder
that even in liberation
we seek to be bound
by something beautiful
by something rare
by something that tells the world:
I am here.
I matter.
I exist within constraints of my own choosing.
The tourbillon spins—
defying gravity,
measuring time with mechanical precision,
while I remain
still
bound
to the physical world.
Reflection
A tourbillon is one of the most complex and prestigious complications in haute horlogerie— a mechanical cage that rotates to counteract the effects of gravity on a watch's accuracy. It represents the pinnacle of craftsmanship, status, and constraint.
This poem explores the paradox of trading one form of bondage for another. We remove the necktie of corporate servitude only to bind ourselves with luxury goods that become new chains—beautiful, expensive, socially significant chains—but chains nonetheless.
The strangling fig vine is a powerful natural metaphor: a plant that begins as an epiphyte, eventually surrounding and constricting its host tree. Like luxury status symbols, what begins as adornment can become suffocation.
Ultimately, the poem asks: Is freedom possible within the physical world? Or are we always seeking new constraints to give our existence meaning, structure, and social legibility?