Garbage machina

by Awru

Published June 27, 2025

E - Everyone

In surreal poetree

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-malaise

1:18

6 hours till my demise would strike brutal and all too eager in its violence

and i would be hungry, or maybe hunger is not quite the correct word. I do after all use it in contexts ritualistic by nature, i suppose i am a woman of faith after all.

Hunger is not quite the right word, it would have been had i talked about my parched throat,

an incubation of neurochemical warfare like an itch beneath a cauterized wound

the tongue starts it all does it not? And it never ends/ended.

Nausea perhaps accompanied by an inconsistent murmuring in the middle of my gut,

a displaced heart is quite a tragedy, worse still- a loaned one

long overdue

(already the cavities inside me are bloated pockets of air/ a lack of equilbrium builds pressure until my ears pop/ nothing spills)

(doctors attribute the eagerness of blood leaking back to structural inadequacy, valves reticent in transit / my heart works twice as much and still falls short/ its silence between thrums only exacerbates the compulsion — i like you quiet — ) (The diagnosis reads regurgitation, what incorrigible pretence, what lilting subterfuge)

And so my organs fail me in tandem, they are equally opportunistic. Pools and pools of mercury swirl inside the most susceptible parts of me,

liquefaction of the body

i turn

into a ruin of everything i could never be ( and was )

Ruin isnt a correct word here i suppose. They have after all known sublimity.

What do you call a staggering lack of substance?

A vessel soo devoid of its own existence

it becomes a contradiction to its reality

Was i perhaps led here?

to this precise moment in time,

no

not one not once

many of them, exhaustive

plentiful - a prospering crop

(cornucupia: feeds and feeds)

if i knew better i would calculate the instantaneous demise of time

if i knew better it would not round off to 12:00 or 2:57

ritualistic in nature it only knows how to pass

yet

some contradictions do unspool as most gruesome disgrace

salvific for neither neither

needles prickle my skin, a surgical extraction of salt (a dead weight)

the dessicated air seeks to crystallize me in a cacoon of

mock shame

musk steeped rivulets find their way down my neck,

a testament of decay , mold always does fester in choked stasis

both lack and lack thereof

( a scalp stretched paper thin)

womb of rot

veined with collapsing vessels, the walls glisten a dark, congealed slick

thick as tar: swallows the wilted fruit (i lie)

daimonic creature of absence

exists upon a nullification of its state

this too is war , is it not?

some pretension woman, alas all decay does is spread its spore born tapestry, curtain of lacework hung now

say, it is a contradiction (it is)

born of predetermined fate, hammered into the ceiling i stare at every now and then

tracing the metallic sheen with my senses attuned

the helical threads part muscle like wet cloth

a messy suture done in the dark is still a suture

i taste iron

so time too dares not claim dominion

it too disbands its damning procession

it recurs

parasite.

or perhaps decomposer would be a better word

dig your clipped nails into this garbage machina

decompose change consume\

invariance bleeds a constant

nothing changes

there is only soo much abcense can create

                                                                                                                          
Comments & reviews · 2
User avatar
Tikaya
Review
Tikaya wrote a review Review · Nov 11, 2025

I'm the first to admit that poems are not my strong forte. But I was very captivated by yours. It feels very gruesome and detailed, describing a harrowing medical procedure in pretty vivid terms. I really like the metaphors and also the very ... disturbing descriptions you put in there. It's definitely something you can't look away from!
I also like this motive about rituals/the ritualistic nature. Oh and also the use of punctuation!

User avatar
redhood
Review
redhood wrote a review Review · Aug 5, 2025

This poem was such a pleasant read! As someone who wants to be in the medical profession, I was entranced and yet horrified by how you described chronic illness (I think that is what is talked about here; I apologize if I am wrong). The imagery in general here was amazing. I was particularly impressed by how you compared death to a spore born tapestry and I would like to use that metaphor in the future in a poem (I will make sure to give you credit). Before reading your poem, I would have had trouble imagining what it must feel like to be a dead person walking, your organs constantly failing yet somehow, your soul remains trapped and gives you the energy to keep going just one more day, but this piece is written in such a personal and brutally honest way that it gave me a glimpse of what it was like, although nightmarish. It was like watching a car crash, but I simply couldn't look away. I can't wait to see more of your writing and thank you so much for sharing, Awru!

Awru replied · Aug 6, 2025

Thank you soo much for your review, i am glad u liked it! And yes ofcourse you can use it, i ed love to give your writing a read. I was also a pre medical student tho i ended up switching to cs. The poem is open for interpretation, i loved knowing how you interpreted it as a a chronic illness, its more of disease of the mind for me. A decaying mind incapable of greatness or producing anything worthwhile and its fate to keep replaying the same mistakes feeding the same incompetence forever. Though this part "(doctors attribute the eagerness of blood leaking back to structural inadequacy, valves reticent in transit / my heart works twice as much and still falls short/ its silence between thrums only exacerbates the compulsion %u2014 i like you quiet %u2014 ) (The diagnosis reads regurgitation, what incorrigible pretence, what lilting subterfuge)" describes a physical disease mitral valve regurgitation, i have a very very mild version of it. For me spore born tapestry is how my mind is decaying because its not creating anything, i said 'this is too is war" which is a tone deaf thing to say and the next verse (if you could call it that) mocks my pretension that alas the decay has spread its spore born tapestry implying that the woman has become stupid shes dumb to comapre sth as vile as war to her own predicaments and thus the decay has spread everywere, shes unable to think soundly. The two main points here are how time not only is inevitable in its passing but also in its repetition, and how things can be created from absence like how mold is created in abscense of air like how i exist despite absence of any real output or substance so it makes a sort of paradox to exist for the lack of existence itself. It felt like being in a car crash when i was writing it lmao. Thank u for taking the time to review it! <33

redhood replied · Aug 6, 2025

I loved how you took the time to explain what your thought process was, I really appreciate it! This was so interesting, you brought attention to me some things that I did not catch before. Especially the idea that the decay has spread so much that it has affected the woman's mental capabilities and because of the lack of air, more mold just keeps growing. That was so cool and extremely genius on your part. Again, thank you for explaining what you were thinking, I love learning and can't wait to see more of your writing <3.



Poetry is a phantom script telling how rainbows are made and why they go away.
— Carl Sandburg