Machines Under Maintenance
Angel Leal

How many nights
did your waterproof hands
shelter me from the rain?

I was a lost signal
when you found me

rusting in a heap of metal legs
going nowhere.

But your eyes.
They glowed with the future.

Worming through your circuits
was a kind of sunlight
I’ve never seen

a connection
I’ve never felt
to the ground under me.

Walking behind you
with new legs attached
I felt flowers touch my ankles

an enormous network
of green.

That was years ago.

Now, love, it’s you that’s rusted
and needs maintenance.

Let me bring you that firefly.

I’ll catch its tiny fire
and show you the world
is still alive.

It blinks in your hand

like small flashes
of a better life.