The Mechanical Hound (Poem)

in #poetry7 years ago (edited)

This is a piece I wrote a few years ago for the mechanical hound from Fahrenheit 451. This is the moment before Montag burns Captain Beatty. Enjoy!


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Smoke and ash.
My quivering nose raises to the dawn streaked sky.
From the shadows, I watch my keepers.
They stand in front of a charcoal pit, the leader and his underling.
One, a picture of confidence and the other, a mess of fear…

I smell it.

The scent of a chase.

The needle within my mouth pokes out and withdraws.
Excitement.
Sparks of electricity pop and circuit within my internal hard drives.
A burst of flame issues from a machine the quivering man is holding.
Blackness descends.
He turns on the two puppets in front of the rolling metal log, yelling angrily.

The blowing of a single autumn leaf.
And I become the predator once again.
The thrill of the hunt surrounds me.
I can feel the creaks of my metal joints.
I fully focus the weak, fleshy being before me.
So, I leap into action like a coiled spring released from the pressure that holds it.

For the joy of death beckons me.

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Beautiful... there's a mounting suspense to this poem, a music made of words, that builds as you read, like an electrical charge that is released with the last line.

Hey @titus-andronicus! I'd be honored if you'd consider contributing a couple of lines to the collaborative poem I started, just for fun and to build community, in the poetry section of Steemit: https://steemit.com/poetry/@bennettitalia/steemit-collaborative-poetry-experiment

This is just a fun experiment, and it's already getting pretty silly, but I'd love to hear what you'd add to it :) My goal for this is to start a series of similar "exquisite corpse" poems, maybe one per week, on different themes, to bring the poetry community together, and to do a video with each finished poem, with attributions. We'll see if this first one even gets off the ground :D

Thank you for your kind comments! Yes, I'll definitely consider contributing to your collab poem! Thanks for inviting me!

This is excellent - the meter and flow of your chosen words is well constructed. I Love this piece. I will definitely be looking out for your other writings!

Thank you so much! I am glad that you enjoyed!