Rod Riesco
Machine House
Inside the machine house we watch the oiled brass members lift
and push against each other.
Their habits are plotted with fanatical clarity on creased charts
in wide cabinets.
The draughtman’s hands are bones, but the metal skeletons prance
in swirling gowns and spit thin coffee-colouredgrease.
The great crown rotates with mindless severity, trapped in its
ceremonial.
The beam nods and linkages faint and revive as the hysterical
governor tugs the weights and levers.
I clutch you, and point. A climax is approaching: the valves
clack and hiss, the needles tremble higher, fierce shudders
run through the handrails and up the fluted shafts.
Will the iron fruit drop from the capitals? Will the whole
burnished temple collapse?
But the rumble slows and stops, the trundling belts fall silent,
and something escapes with a sigh.
and push against each other.
Their habits are plotted with fanatical clarity on creased charts
in wide cabinets.
The draughtman’s hands are bones, but the metal skeletons prance
in swirling gowns and spit thin coffee-colouredgrease.
The great crown rotates with mindless severity, trapped in its
ceremonial.
The beam nods and linkages faint and revive as the hysterical
governor tugs the weights and levers.
I clutch you, and point. A climax is approaching: the valves
clack and hiss, the needles tremble higher, fierce shudders
run through the handrails and up the fluted shafts.
Will the iron fruit drop from the capitals? Will the whole
burnished temple collapse?
But the rumble slows and stops, the trundling belts fall silent,
and something escapes with a sigh.
Page(s) 25
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