A Poem, Of Kings, The Seduction of Adding Machines and the Smell of Flowers

The Seduction of an Adding Machine and the Smell of Flowers
The clatter, clack, clack
Of the adding machine stops,
And he inhales the memory of
The city of kings
stone steps
domed cathedrals.

To be king.

He exhales,
with
sorrow filled repressed memory:
Her:
containing will
strength
peddling flowers
in the city of ancient kings.
Knights’ horses clopping with daisies in their manes.
Her daisies.

He:
absent strength,
no will,
sorrow repressed memory,
bidding the call of the number machine:
clatter, clack, clack, clack.

He:
thinking of kings and flowers.
She:
selling flowers
the city of kings.
Auditing the numbers of strangers,
repressing all else.

To be king.