Poem: Assimilation

 

Assimilation

 

a machine-like nothing-

ness holds the air,

and we feel our sprocket-

hood, the gaps in our hearts

at callous intervals.

 

we earned this crush,

side-by-side in place.

our faces grew very hard

so they could mesh. 

our movements formed

a dance of notches

in parallel squares.

 

who could recover

from these thermo-

dynamic hours

in a clockwork of days?

we were told, once,

we could be anything;

but that only meant

life is a fast engine

with specialized gears.

 

some of us

become docile alternators,

some of us linchpins,

some of us epoxy,

sealing young cracks.

 

we approach each other

like bolts screwing down

into receptive slots,

easy, mechanical, solid,

safe.

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Originally Published in Yes, Poetry!