Metal fragments pelt numb layers and grooves of skin
along my arm; crackling and popping with
their shiny miniskirts in my steady repetition.

Searing shards bop and bounce
along my pants and shirt;
mingling and severing their strained fibers.

The drill bites deeper
into the metal’s warm flesh.
It grumbles, protesting as
cutting oil overflows
the throbbing cavity.

      If I...

Grinding, grinding,
the heat radiates with
acrid smoke like the
misty softness of a woman’s hands
across my unshaven cheeks.

With eyes undeterred
and tightened shoulders,
the bit penetrates deeper
into the whining stock.

      If I only...

The platform shakes
beneath my clenched jaw
and wandering thoughts
as the motor rumbles through
The heavy air like an outcrying
lightning storm.

Grays and blacks bleed through
to golds and whites as
sparkling glimmers of the spent
metal’s flesh whip by like
a dry wind across the Serengeti.

      If I only had...

Pungent scents tease my nostrils. Game.
Golden grass-stalks drift by in sync with my
rolling shoulders. Her sweat triggers my saliva
as my tongue tests the sharpness of my teeth,
and quickens my pace.

The setting sun blinds her until
the glint is replaced by my black eyes.
Her scream dies between the rolling thunder-
miles away-and my closing bite.

       If I only had a…

My eyes never lose sight of hers,
desperately pleading for my release
in her final throws and tears.

My teeth sink deeper.
Churning shards burst from the frail metal
as it sacrifices its wet, dwindling core.

A slight exhale as the vapid scent of cutting
oil drifts from the spent metal’s flesh as it’s
tossed on a pile 4 ½ blocks thick.

Thick with the same passionless meandering
and wasted flesh, and the lie that they could
ever deem themselves alive.

      If I only had a heart.