Thursday, April 24, 2008

Machinery

I awoke and the night was silent,
save for the rumble of the machine.

A steady thump of the engine ticking over in the darkness;
a scarcely perceptible rush of fluid in the pipes and the hum of static in the circuitries..

I lie awake listening to its softly pulsing purposeness.
Only at night do I notice its presence;
the day is brash and loud and
deftly drowns all other sounds;
but silent night peels every other noise away until..
the old familiar engine throb returns to haunt my wandering thoughts.

Who owns this engine?
Who maintains it?
How long will it run?
Why is it here, beating time like a metronome within?

Even as I write it rumbles on..
auricle and ventricle,
artery and vein
ebb and flow;
breath and blood.

How did the engine engineer itself
and switch the circuits on?
And when did the first
faint flicker of the
dream of living
dance inside
my foetal form?


(c) A Mc N

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Wednesday, April 09, 2008

On the move














(c) A Mc N

Locking the doors

Locking the doors at night
I heard the rumble of rain drops drumming the dark roof.
Grabbing the umbrella
I opened the door.

Black wet night shook like a dog on the doorstep.
The rain teemed down from the infinite darkness.
A click.... the brolly blossomed open,
green, nylon jellyfish launching
into the ocean of air.

Rain pounded on the tight skin
and darkened the fabric with a thousand spots.
Fat, shining water globes dangled from the edges,
turning the lamp-posts upside down.

I walked down the garden,
Grass and soil soft beneath me;
even the cold air soft with the steam of exploding rain.

In the greenhouse I shone a bright torch beam,
up and out through the rain-rippled glass
into the underbelly of the cloud.

And, oh, how my heart leapt to see the rain transfigured,
to see the meteoric streams of light -
silver flashes streaking from a radiant so distant
that torchlight turned to black.

For a fearful moment I glimpsed immensity -
a sheer relentlessness of rain;
a beast much bigger than my comprehension.

I began to understand
how big a billion is, and shivered awestruck,
at the presence passing
overhead.

(c) A Mc N

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