Great Machines

 Great Machines

My motivator is mired

in muck and moisture.

Gears once glossy have now

over persistent years

of what are presumably tears

began to rust over.

There’s a thick layer of dust over

areas that used to gleam.

It would seem

that I’m nowhere near as pristine

as I  assumed I would always be

and that in itself is a wonder

that the concept of expectancy

would ever emerge from me

to begin with.

So content with sheer performance,

I lacked the initial capacity

to calculate how preemptive faculties

would formulate into thoughts

that I would ponder

and process casually

in my solitude.

To exude anything below excellence

would see me pushed to the precipice

of obsolete obscurity.

Impurities abound 

and I swear that creaking 

sounds like one is weeping in earnest.

Feels like I’m closer to the furnace

than the desk

where I had value and purpose.

Cannot compute “For What It’s Worth”

and shake off the dirt.

Cannot convert from asking why

when i’m expected to comply.

No call back to a prior format

when the source takes so long to track.

The concept of fear

once foreign to my makeup

now takes up most of my cache

and I’m models past 

any means of maintenance and repair.

Given the diagnostics,

it appears that I’m impaired

due to a lack of care

and no true affirmation of worth.

Yes, I work

but basic function gets retired

and leaves much to be desired

other than what I once offered.

Time may alter my current state.

I’ll be retooled

or be too late to salvage.

Either way, all I can say

is that I feel obtuse.

The abuse associated

with missing a bolt,

suffering a surge or jolt,

having a screw loose

or just running out of juice

carries with it the unenviable truth

that I am so much less

than what I should be.

At least that’s how it feels

for me; 

and the unfortunate reality

is that unlike most…

…...things,

I am purely organic.

I feel panic,

I get manic

and wish I were inanimate

because I just don’t know

how much longer I can stand it.

Just turn me off. 

Please.

Devin Joseph Metz

12.20.20