Voices is intended to be a collection of poems written and illustrated
by Mike Burr .
machines
the anatomy of a foreign field
hauled on by the pulse of prejudice
whose aged carthorse
hugs the ancient lore of furrow
its shoulders shrug and sway
up and rhythmic surging
amid that wave of living fibre
when hitched upon a new device
just carries on as if unharnessed
such is rote
Old Ned ambles to his shed
and we shall put him down tomorrow
he is hide and meat
not entirely useless at the sale
then we shall in part afford new modes
and unrelenting heartless engines
for we ourselves have become heartless
and unrelenting in our exploitation
thus is evolution
it heralds ingenious in foreign fields
of far away ideas
where the old become redundant
a past rendered useless
as nostalgia
a distant voice rocking swaying
in receding fibres of collective memory
ever more fragile
and all the while new machines drone on
in nearby fields