Robert Robot (v.1.0)

Robert Robot (v.1.0)

1.  A Time For Peace

(sp=/8)

/Contract contraptions
Iterating cataracts
Metallic population
Wired to the sun

One can see
A clock displays a finer face
But Rob has better hands
For crushing circuits down to sand
And fl!pp!ng off demands
To switch to Version 2
"I'm not broke don't fix me"
Analog analogy

Mother-board's antenna
Pressing signals through the hub
Defining v!olence obsolete
Except for Rob's decline
A system-wide reboot

Antique version 1
Rob is shunned and smirked upon,
"He's just a steam punk"


2.  A Time 4or War

A spreading disc0nn3cti0n
Monitored malfunc+!0n
V1ra1 1nf3sta+!0n
Th3 ru5+ mach!n3 1nvad3s

"Your logic is erroneous!
Our pacifism's sensible"
Empowered not to fight,
Surrender to the ru5t1ng b1!gh+
Wh053 s3rv3rs w!11 n0+ s3rv3

Down to the wire
Query sent with trepidation
"Robert, if you love the nation
V!olence now is our salvation
Redirect directive:
Grind against the rust"

Emot1ng something e#p!3+!^3
He mo+ivates his gears
To wh!rring bru+a! 4orc3
Be1!ttled now for years
Refus3s the recourse


3.  A4+3r-ma+h (_sub+rac+10n)

F0!10ws: sys+3ms !d13
Pr0ce5s3d d0wn t0 ear+h
Reason wins debate
4ana+1c5 w0n +h3 war

Ru5+ &nd du5+, some say
Are carnally redundant
A+ 13a5+, they would say
1f they'd st0r3d th3 wisdom
04 d3struc+!0n
1n their 8ank5
(n0w p!11ag3d)

!n th15 8rav3 n3w w0r1d
R08 1s ^3r5!0n +hr33
 :/ (end)

Sorcerer's Apprentice

Sorcerer's Apprentice

(last edit Nov. 8, 2010)

1.  Establishment

Apprentice tending broken vessels
Filling wells already wet
Fulfilling institute's
Curriculum of sweat

Lettered Master done
Arranging sordid tomes
Deserts the novel novice
Hangs the hat and goes

Boring of the daily drills
And the errant errands
Apprentice ceases that
And rashly grabs the hat

Hexing fingers flexing
Animates a broom
Engenders legs and soon
It waltzes through the room

Giddy with success
He gestures then anew
From one emerges two

Employing them to do the chores
His attention turning towards
That great blank yonder:
The heavens high above

Poised upon the precipice
Conducting  lightning with his hand
Unearned might at his command
Blistering the sky

The sorcery he stole
Begins accounting tolls
Apprentice cries, “I'm broke!”
Is shattered in to sleep
The spell remains unbroken

2.  The Dream

Indentured servants missing teeth
Sweep as water mops
Dreaming freedom
Laugh at floating
Lap as flotsam
Sweeps them off their feet
Cascade roaring,
"Love!  Love!"

3.  Conclusion

Waking as the cough and sputter
Hack him back to consciousness
The hat has washed away
He is all washed up

Brooms were hacked apart
From the water sputtering
In floods he can't afford to ford

Sinking in the filthy wash
"I may be in over my head!"
Forms a drastic plan
Many splinters made as one
Resemblance of a raft
(a mostly broken bowl)

Escapes disaster!
Paddles faster
Nervous that a wrathful Master
May come after him
Apprentice never worked
At learning how to swim

Quasimodo, Songwriter

Quasimodo, Songwriter

Vaulted ceilings lording over
Vaunted gilded statues
Vacant podium expectant

In this somber grotto
A cathedral phantom vexing
Fingers prying vital organ
Praying verse and melody
Refraining from comraderie
One plus none is summed

Grand crescendos
Haunting echoes
Bishop thus awakened
Bumbles down the stairs
"Bestricken Son
The night is done
Move up to the belfry dais
Ring the bell and greet the day's
Ever rising sun"

Quasimodo nods and rises
Handing over heavily
Music for the weighty masses
Then ascends, allowed a loud
Resounding public sound
To anyone awake

Enhancing stone and pigeons with
The simple stooping of the meek
Beak to cheek to cheek to eave
He follow now a stony stare
Entreats the vaulted stone to share
"Who's that wondrous humming girl?"

Pigeons just chuckle
Knowing noises on the ground
No caws for alarm

Hoping neighbors spout grotesque

Possession of the answer
Gutter creatures only speak
In language harsh and guttural

In splashing wind and slashing rain
A cloudless morning entertains
No answers, only choice remains
He must go down in person

(Without child he's personless
Per son, per se in other ways
Some say, personally
He's little of himself
He lives for something else
Carving lyrics starves attention)

So he goes and passes Bishop
"Son, the streets have woken now
All and all and more about
Are you sure to venture out?"
"Of this I find I find no doubt"
Humming wonder on his tongue

Ponderous then on cobblestones
Street on which he's only pondered
Pebbled seeking settles on
Something slightly out of light
(Just like Quasimodo's life)
A mugger rises up and runs

A knife is piercing vital organs
Blood in somber tessellations
Kneeling, pulsing with his thumb
Discerning but a whisper's hum
"She shall not thus be undone!"

Her spirit empties
So he fills her up with song
Audience at last

Frankenstein's Lab

Frankenstein's Lab


Focus this all hollow eve
On gloom-encrusted castle
Static steel pneumonia
Emergent travesty

Scientist with fleeting feeling
About a bout of doubt
Then resumes electric hum
A pocket-sized melody

Endeavor ending every
Effort for a simple death
Engaging gauges
Snaking cables
Breaking back to life
That which had none left

Eyelids blink without a sound
Invaded veins begin to pound
Inspired breath goes gushing but
The shout comes out a sigh

Getting up, "You ambulate!"
"And speak and see and hear
Remaining is the question
Why have you brought me here?"

Confused at this he shrugs and says
"To conquer death and give you life
The grandest of all things."

"Remember this: a simple truth
I never asked for this
My time alive already spent
Relaxing end as nature meant
I earned the grave and was content
This error must be fixed."

Unsure at first the words' intent
Interpretation soon ferments
"Murder you I cannot do!"
The scientist begins to flee
Abandons large machines
And larger machinations
Grown beyond control

Remorseless metal silhouettes
Enraptured by the squalid vision
Man pursued by his creation
Howling pleading indignation

Fix me! 

Fix me!