Grinding teeth, the factory mouths my name. Steam-bent lungs, I iron out the ache, metal ribs clamp down, refuse to break. Neon veins pulse with acid light, circuit prayers that choke the quiet night. I scar myself to bleed, mark the hours with rusty teeth. Torn paper wrists and weld-line scars, I count the cost beneath the sparking stars. Assembly ghosts with glassy eyes, we solder faith from broken wires. The foreman laughs with a hydraulic grin, and the machines applaud what we’ve been Tear this flesh off of me strip it down to the chassis and the dream. I wish I couldn’t be, how close I have come, but I only, only bleed. Feed me steel, feed me steam, feed me the endless machine. Gears bite bone; the oil eats the skin, a lullaby of compressors humming thin. Motherboards cradle a skeleton tongue, transmitting grief in a thousand volts sung. I scar myself to bleed, calibrate the night to need. Wrapped in wire, baptized in sparks, I navigate the maze of rusted hearts. Black-clock towers measure out our names, time stamped in factory scars and shame. We’re ledger lines on a cold machine’s face, notes of loss in a ledger of space. Assembly ghosts with glassy eyes, we solder faith from broken wires. The foreman laughs with a hydraulic grin, and the machines applaud what we’ve been. Tear this flesh off of me strip it down to the chassis and the dream. I wish I couldn’t be, how close I have come, but I only, only bleed. Feed me steel, feed me steam, feed me the endless machine. I scar myself to bleed. Tear this flesh off of me. Weld the seams and call it free, I’m a body in the gears of industry! Tear this flesh off of me, let the grinders sing me obsolete. I wish I couldn’t be, how close I have come, but I only bleed. Only bleed. Only bleed beneath the tempers of the steel. A last spark, a last confession.
