Forevertron

I have built a machine to visit the stars.

I have built a machine to outlast the stars.

There is a glass ball inside a copper egg.

There are dynamos and turbines, Tesla coils and magnets.

There is a boy in Brooklyn, Wisconsin

and a boy in Eddington, England.

They are the same boy. There is a man in a hat

in Baraboo. They are all named Tom.

They are all named Dr. Evermor, which is now

their real name. Queen Victoria is watching

among the giant insects, the fiddle-shaped birds.

The stray voltage goes in the stray voltage

cages, all silver, red and blue. The music

will signal the ascent. This is the Overlord

Master Control, this is the Graviton,

these are the Celestial Listening Ears.

When you ask me what has changed my life,

I tell you motors, generators, compressors, transformers;

I tell you boilers, pumps, transmitters and flywheels.

When you ask me if I found them I say no,

I rescued them.

Source: The Ratio of Reason to Magic (Dos Madres Press, 2016)