Poetic License: November 2002 Online Poetry Journal

A Time for Change
by Alin

Next to the Gods
by Pedro R. Briones

Untitled

Mom and the Mideast
by Sarah D

[Industry]
by Elsa Kim

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[Industry]
by Elsa Kim

My eyes forged through

The great solid metal gears and cranks, churning on and on,

Sparks flying at my face, charring and scalding my pupils, my irises, my face, tender skin soft hollows of
cheeks, unyielding bones denying the
sensation of tiny figments of fire exhorting with shrieks and feral bicuspids sharpened to points:

A size approaching nothingness,

Claws teeth blue scarlet gold crimson crying attacking scarring mauling

The taut skin controlling this purposeful mind,

Limping lids containing these knowing, discovering globes of sight

Until, who would guess,

Instead of falling, defeated by mechanical rage,

I blinked once more and had skin stolid yet emboldened, desensitized yet

My skin, my face, I flamed BACK with all the cracking and leaping passion and angst

Tears no longer timid drops of fuel that beckoned

the sizzling gears to burn brighter, fiercer,

But instead blocks of coal were the darkness in my eyes,

Grasping the endless flame, ignited, glorified.

What would you say

If I could fight this fire with fire

Defeat the smoke with my smoke

Smother all pretenses of superiority

Slather the world in lush verdancy

And soft sparkling swirling waves,

Become Impossibility bursting out of a slender champagne bottle,

No longer to be savored and dispensed of, to make elite minds light and unsteady,

But instead to submerge you, to conquer you,

With my ultimate potency bubbling through your every artery

And make you know that THE WORLD is entirely possible?