mecha visits little tokyo
I was born steel-reinforced
into mother serenity:
the growl of a metal-frame
mecha waiting to respond
to my exhalations
fetal in a chrome womb
throbbing bass heartbeat
reverse
drive
palimpsest smog and blue
gives way to the haze of distance
outlining sun-faded skylines
I am not a monster here
not a split-brained beast
who finds peace only
in a two-ton death machine
my mind’s skinner godzillas
become shadowboxed,
snakes clutched claw-strong
in my harpy talons
here, after I pull up curbside
and park mecha with two hours
on the meter, headlights winking out
I can be anyone
kowtowing sumimasen
little tokyo, float my world
into an ukiyo mask of anonymity