Nature's corrupted in factories far away
The laceration trailed from the thorax down to its knee. Patina’d skin peeling away to create jagged peepholes into the machine's functions. Its biomechanics are working at full capacity despite the bruises and contusions littering its synthetic epidermis. The internal structure of the chassis appears unharmed. Each cog in the machine is running smoothly, like a factory employing a heart, brain, pair of lungs, and all the other typical human amenities. The laceration does not impede key functions, however, the machine's irregular actions indicate an unexplainable Dysesthesia. It stops. It is not supposed to stop. I command it to continue and yet all that shifts are its glass celadon eyes. Advanced scans prove that nothing is damaged, yet the machine is acting wrong. Therefore it is a simple fact that the machine is defective. It is unfortunate that hard work is often disregarded due to the failures brought on by its own autonomy.
The opening line immediately discombobulates the reader with its weird association of a "thorax" with a "knee." The poem unfolds into an image of a mutilated but resilient machine. The speaking voice seems to be trying to ascertain the damage. The machine turns out to have an issue, but it's not because of the wound, or so the speaker informs us. The speaker knows detailed and highly specific things about the machine, like the fact that its eyes are "celadon." I had to look that word up, but it does fit the poem. But should the speaker have access to such an esoteric word in his/her/its vocabulary? ultimately the speaker dismisses the machine as merely defective. The last line seems to suggest the machine was functioning well and working hard. The speaker that the machine work is not recognize. This is a bureaucratic/administrative voice. Overall, I found the poem fascinating but a bit anticlimactic.
ReplyDeleteI'll be honest, I did have to look up several words in this poem. Although I didn't understand everything without a dictionary, these technical words and the way you make the process sound cruel and quick combined with the title clued me into what was happening.
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