On this night
A new machine burns and churns
blazing a new path into my head
with brazen sobs and fierce laughter

Finally presenting itself
a damnable steel contraption
my face razed by the acid-sweat that streams from my brow
as it encircles me, it calls out to me
and lastly engulfs me

"Upwards!" it brays, fumbling
as it pushes its way skywards through the foul haze
of downtown night—I'm held by its arms, soaring

"Soon," it coos, barely audible, "You'll be one of us!"
The machine's metal digits caress my face, seeking what?
A metallic vision blundering
through the night sky, laden with its prize

Following paths yet unbeaten, destroying me, myself
and replacing me with strange steel
and bizarre conceptualizations, struggling to
learn what all the blatant gawking could possibly mean

This is my first attempt at writing poetry for public consumption in more than a decade. Poetry is a literary genre I've previous shunned, so I thought putting it on E2 might be a catharsis to reconcile my feelings about poetry. I wrote this poem in 1997 (a good year, by the way), and I've dug it up, thanks to an ancient digital backup, and here now I throw it to the wolves.

Previously, I disdained poetry. I felt unqualified to judge it. It is with this that I hope to begin to understand poetry.

If this is well-received, I may post more poems. Please let me know what you think of it, good or bad, or anywhere in between.