The Machine

Beyond a big, yellow ‘DETOUR’ sign, an enormous machine with flashing amber lights and frightening teeth is grinding asphalt down, moving slowly along the street leaving a grooved wake as it scrapes and gouges its way through a long night depriving the citizenry of sleep by the sound of a relentless, ear piercing ‘beep’, ‘beep’. Though the subject matter and imagery is entirely different, the above picks up a subtle echo from that famous poem by William Carlos Williams, ‘The Great Figure’.