# 100 - the machine stops

9.4.20

100

the machine stops

a little rhapsody

come to the end of the graph

all fall

you wouldn’t have thought it would be like this

and where were you when…

I was trapped in the forest

tamed an ache

and up towards

have you had that dream

no hands to catch?

plenty pushing

no nothing,  no net

wind generated by the fall

you can dissolve in that too

all at home

and fight the demons there

because we are now in ‘the time’

it has come, not quite foretold

though hindsight says

the machine stopped

and I was stuck in the garden

I had the run of the creek

and looked up

blink

where are we now?  everyone wonders

road roared out its last

and the blade laid down

though maybe not

… that might have just been my dream

webs grew over my head though

someone moved into the walls

locked up tight as a drum with the weather

I was a kind of bellows

these must be the last days

too late to bunker

adopt a foetus position

have the volcano home delivered

some here some there

when the machine stops

couldn’t even count by ourselves

can still hear the digging though

and how long?

someone had had us marked down for believing

and someone had bought us a war

wash your hands

don’t be like that

later the children in uniforms

I spread my own rumour

threw the switch

radio last

now no world at all

the machine stopped

all fell into conversation

worked fears through

each insect of us bigger

I trained my own mosquito too

flesh and bones still went in

crawl breathlessly in the littlest poem

be in the underleaf, at soil

take my refuge there

and can you remember when we stopped hearing the machine

noticed no pilot light

no sausage coming out ?

as if tomorrow-ing the now

a four horse turn this apocalypse

how many zombies in?

still not dark enough for you yet?

my wine was coming in the post, tea too

I was back on line when the machine stopped

I was in it when it happened

had come with a spanner, gone crazy

chased the buttons after

I’m sure you remember that machine

stylized cogs

but what were we really making?

my shoulder as much to the wheel

and I know that you were with me

some say latte, a kind of spray

everyone wears it

to market, to market

and all the way home

one cage on top of another

don’t even know the creature’s name

shall we describe it?

crawling, delicious

face and fur, all paws

and we can do it

we can get through

when the machine stopped

borders all closed

you knew this could go one way or another

it was wake up or keep in the dream

can’t remember

was a long long time

couldn’t go anywhere

I threw down my fence

had a good old cow bellow

and was it bull or was it bear?

wallaby all watchful

here was the tallest of stories

nightmare some say

and downstream drift

sunshone lovely

now we were free

come again come again

roll up

to the day prayed for

see the towers fall

the machine gets up again

blind swagger

everyone goes down

and did

now stranded in the garden

turns of sun

turns of rain

vines lapped at my brow for omen

and wonder

had there really ever been a machine?

what  if we all just imagined together?

might we not furl all flags away?

ploughshares from what now?

leap forward

who will pay?

then when birds were back in the sky

I came indoors and saw

here are the twenty six tin letters

these are the chains to lose

wipe tear away

turn off the life support

it’s one way or it’s the other

welcome the brave new world