ode to the machine.

[mnaz]

plink 'n clank.
plink 'n clank.
plink 'n clank.
plink 'n clank.
plink 'n clank.
plink 'n clank.

and then,
pssssssssssss...

it's miller time.
grab one from the conveyor belt.

[Arcadia]

you're moving towards Neruda slowly, friend!
funny!
saludos,

Arcadia

[WIREMAN]

chaplinesque modern times visions............... you have given me these senor naz.....

[Doreen Peri]

domini domini domini
you're all cyberaddicts now.
you are forgiven.
go in peace.

[stilltrucking]

The multiplicity
The horror the horror
I can see it all
From San Pedro to Baltimore

Dustin Hoffman should have listened
I have seen the future and it is plastic

Good stuff mark thanks for writing

[Doreen Peri]

a piece i perform from time to time..

"the machine" by carl sandburg

.....
the machine
yes, the machine.
never wastes anybody's time.
never watches the foreman.
never talks back.

the machine.
yes, the machine.
cuts your production costs.

a man is a man and what can you do with him
a man is a man and what can you do with him
but
a machine

now you take a machine,
no kids no family never hungry
never thirsty all a machine needs
is a little extra attention and
plenty of grease
and plenty of grease
and plenty of grease"

(of course, i may not have it exactly as sandburg wrote it but this is how i perform it anyway... as a machine.. my voice.. speeding up then getting slower toward the end until it dies out...)

[stilltrucking]

Eight hours on a production line
Running a screw machine
Up and down
up and down
It went
Tighten three screws
one two three
an end less line
one two three
again and again
after eight hours I became a machine too
all of us on that line
walking zombies at the end of the shift
Sucked dry of will
Such a gray feeling
walking out of that factory
into the morning light
it took hours for the chill to pass

Then as a truck driver i saw
factory after factory
all producing identical objects
some nights when I close my eyes
I can still see the multiplicity of it all
hurry hurry

The ones making those glass bottles were my favorite
The glass furnaces the hot glowing flowing lava of glass
glooping into the molds
the endless march of the plink and clank
It was hypnotic watching them move down the line



sorry for the ramble Mark
I liked your poem a lot
such economy of language

[Dave The Dov]

I am the machine
The machine is me
We are together
Clank Clack
Making whatever
For whomever
Everything and anything
_________________
BMW F650CS

[mnaz]

this one's startin' to grow on me....

you're all cyberaddicts now

....

no i'm not. i could quit a-nee time i wanted to....