Machine

They argue the controversy:

that once there was an “outside”

of the machine. That once you

could tell flesh from metal, that

there were fingers among spindles

and spur gears, soft fists and faces

beside the wheels and splines.

.

There are discussions about

makers and mechanisms. It

is said the machine was small.

It had a beginning, was small

and grew. It needed fuel and

attention so we moved in. We

made our homes in the forest

of needles and electrodes.

.

They look for evidence of

non-mercurial blood, language

that’s not pulsing light but

circles of sound in surrounding

air.

.

Some write about fondled

bodies, a sense of water,

drunkenness. Fables of regret.

They say we forget, that we

ended our forgetting. But I

know. We were always objects.