Thursday 2 May 2013

332

Stati d'animo serie II. Gli addii, 1911

What passengers fasten to this impersonal
Engine? It bears itself steadily through lights,
Through green veils of tangled smoke,
Through the apparatus of pylons and relayed
Wires, through the signal lights and pilot
Lights, steam pouring from its blackened
Skull as water trailing from a vaseand in
The steam insensible colours between violet
And cyan, between white and grey, between
Heat and the founding of heat in motion

Four bold yellow painted numbers hang in
The air before the boilerplate : 6 9 4 3.
Their terminals and finials seem to flare
In the roiling atmosphere as they move
Forcelessly into sight. Their motion is the
Still motion of a candleflame. In the cabin,
A further yellow light seems to hang. 
No human agent appears in reference : it is
As if the machine moved by its will alone.
Fire breeds somewhere within, caged in steel.

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