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I Am Machine/Iamb Machine

August 20, 2012
By floragj GOLD, Brooklyn, New York
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floragj GOLD, Brooklyn, New York
19 articles 0 photos 8 comments
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I am machine. This iamb machine
that cannot be seen
scrubs my blistered tongue clean.

Of grey flesh am I, warmed by one solemn lie.
I’ll shut off my mind,
then I won’t hear my cries.

With a mercury draught I will swallow my thoughts,
bid them not be unlocked.
I know what I am not.

My lips lose their stain, my body defamed.
There is not crimson pain,
only smell-blinding rain.

I am machine, an iamb machine.
No tear can be gleaned
from my eyelids’ pink seams.

© Elaine S., Phoenix, AZ

The author's comments:
An iamb is a term describing a short beat in poetry, and is compared to a heartbeat. In this poem, I take the word to mean a pulse, or a single heartbeat.
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