The Machine by Nicole Terry  I awake to another level of Herd another stage of the Absurd:   The audience begs for another game depicting the grotesque, malformed, and the insane the Machine turned to On it knows your name in its grip you can know fame The magic moment of deflection blinded by the dazzle of Illusion haunted by masses fulfilling delusions at the party I saw faces masqued who held those eyes I couldn’t ask the stories didn’t tell I felt the great sucking Swallowed by the abyss of darkness locked up in a bottle I beheld the treasure chased behind the castle walls the dreamers or angels or men in packs the end of the trip supplied by a great beast they’re satisfied in deed and pacified   like a great sea of faces all turned to the curtained noise behind the holographic dazzled lighted carnival they threw off their clothes and ran naked in the air the juices of lust and carnality flowed from between their ears they beseeched themselves traded all their property complained lamented to the black robed beast “General!” “General!” deliver us from ourselves Forsake us! Forsake us! and they were like one writhing child drooling whining for its mother’s milk wailed and cried for the hard edge glistening nipple how was she to please them? She opened up her black bag and out flowed all of Pandora’s secrets she removed them from her court ship yet did not cease her courting “away to your homes! away to your homes, my subjects. tell me all your dreams only I have the power to fulfill you give yourselves to me.” and her beguiled wild subjects parted like a sea they moved in waves across the city-yards down the corridors of the maze without the signs red gold and green they never would have found their destiny in their homes behind the doors in their closets and on the floor they kneeled and praised delighted in their dance entranced by the blue seizure she spoke to them one and all in different costumes in different mediums she carried through whispered to each one in turn En Masse told them all the same thing and they all agreed for her court had moved from her chambers to theirs somewhere/somewhen on the air the cackle of her victory   down below way down down deep underground some of us heard and shivered disturbed will we come out into the light? and hide ourselves beneath ambiguity? hold court with obscurity? or would we remain shadows? reputations; neurotics; amputated? did we consider ourselves clean if we never stepped foot in the mire? or did the mire find us and washed us a-filth? we fought: silent quiet rebellion, we remembered recorded events as they were spoke in whispers of what once was divined the future lamented the present but not for anyone else for our own souls for our own sanity we attempted to beguile the enemy we watched from the shadows the marriages and the parades watched the current of green-clad beasts we made the balance we stood on the other end one by one we Fell until only one dared to stand until only one dared to face the giant unafraid and when the noise was done (the giant’s only weapon) that one saw that the giant was very small and that the giant had been borne of fables hallucinations rumours and gossips and since this one knew what it was to feel left the writhing aborted fetus in Pity It escaped the confines discorporated the city but before it flew too high abruptly ended for it finally realized it was tethered to the ground a long prolonged silver crown it could not escape this one because it was one with the ground it could not escape from whence it had become it was involved and revolved in the Evolution for the fetus looked a lot like this one and the resemblance could not be undone so this one was reduced to tears it cried it cried for all those years that it had been deceived but the bewilderment lifted with the tears and in its place acceptance and Will now a choice a choice only this one could make save the fetus nurse it back to health or bear another to take its place an heir to the throne because all all those herds must be led else it all quits turning -Including you including you- this one knew for it was not the fetus nor the beast nor the silent ones nor those at the feast it was only the Machine spinning its simulations simultaneously its similar tapestries glimmering in the breeze only it held life only it had breath and the rest the rest were empty exquisitely so we grant you immunity we grant you immunity what could this one do when faced faced with such a thing? “Sacrifice! There must be a sacrifice.” and when the sacrifice was done when the Illusion returned who was it there to see that but one body laid to rest and a mirror streaked with blood? the Machine             the Machine   © Copyright 2008 Nicole Terry ALL RIGHTS RESERVED   [back to Poems] [Sensual Poetry]