Where Is The Walkman After The Apocalypse?

I am alkaline, the

Inexorable chase.

Moss-pitted, I sit unused,

Regal head slotted to one side

And in all the fantasy chase

Science;

I chase Science

With all the fury of darkness

With all the ease

With all the--

Oh, Science! I am

Alkaline

Antediluvian

Anthropomorphic--

Chemistry on two legs,

Sonorous note to the dim tide,

You listen!--

In Stockholm once

Did I writhe under your aim

Did I sit while you bore--

I long again to be held fast,

For water to pour out my side;

Tremendously used, I shall expire.

Science, what did you do those

Three days?

In the moment I blinked,

You were gone.

Left me--

Mephistopheles.

-Boulder

November 1996