Steam
A heavy grinding, churning
sound assaults the senses
Blacks out everything
around, a skull-shaking
Teeth-rattling, deafening
intensity of shuddering
The platform vibrating,
juddering asunder
Then, dirty grey, clanking,
slowly rumbling past
Spitting waste into a
slate-grey sky
Hot, black, sooty smoke blown
from chimney-stack
Hissing, wheezing steam escaping
valves and joints, orifices
Leaking clouds of white, dripping
water dribbling
Down onto cold wet,
coal-black tracks beneath
Hot iron’s sound and smell,
coal and fire and oil
And the whispering pressure
of the boiler
Hard, heavy turning wheels,
slow shimmering spokes
Across glittering rails of
steel
Its pipes and pistons,
rods and linkages
Crank and turn the shining
driving gear
Valves and pumps forcing shafts
to motion
Via vacuums and vapours, an
elemental driving-force
An intricate inter-play of
metal, gas and liquid
Fluid dynamics, perfectly
synchronised
Harnessed in the creation
Of this dark demonic beast
And when at rest, at
journey’s end, the engine
A leviathan hoarsely
wheezing, breathing hard
From its great exertions stands
hot, glowering
Every aspect of its bulk,
its massive motive power
Its
kinetic promise and potential, its working force
And
energy yet held back, latent
Waiting
patiently under the driver’s steady hand
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