The Difference Engine

No one looks closely.

If you looked closely, you would see

Deep within the gaping head-wound, still leaking hot blood, threads unfolding from the corrugated knot of brain-stem, blossoming like spiderwebs of wire, stretching and threading themselves through the pinkish-grey meat, parting to send dendrites deep into the limbic nest, binding and connecting, firing with brief flashes of bright red like tiny shooting stars, reaching tentatively for the slumbering cortex -

Open wounds gleaming like pewter at their edges, soft puckered metallic lips, opening to flesh with a greyish tint beneath the blood, hints of a carbon sheen just beneath cheekbones, the knuckles and elbow of his left arm, his raw left knee gleaming -

A slight sheen to the teeth that echoes blunted knives -

The staring, vacant eyes going from dark brown to gunmetal grey...

If you listened closely, you would hear:

Click clickity-clack clack-clack-click clickity-clickity clack

The heartbeat smoothing to a regular, deep pulse, the bloodflow slowing, the breathing deep and even, like one who is deep in needed sleep

dreaming of red flashes in a sea of night.

2 comments:

Aric Clark said...

Oooh, creepy. Now it's wired into his brain (even more).

Paul Wise said...

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?


Ruins

Cities