Prototype of a Dream Machine

     poem by Kristine Ong Muslim
     after Max Ernst’s “Jeune chimère” 1921. Collage, gouache and Chinese ink on paper. Private collection.

Nobody wants it dead--that creature of pure assemblage
resembling something and nothing at the same time.

Metal braces hold it together, and whatever is left
of its ego is burbling curses inside the piping

and glass cubicles on its neck-head. It will not stoop,
this being of pure will. Its skirt of corrugated tin cannot

rustle in the wind. Its shoelaces are tied, stable ribbons
upon blue stilts. It gets called by different names.

Kristine Ong Muslim's work has appeared or is forthcoming in numerous publications worldwide, including A River & Sound Review, Arsenic Lobster Poetry Journal, Beeswax Magazine, Boxcar Poetry Review, Fifth Wednesday, GlassFire Magazine, Grasslimb, Iodine Poetry Journal, Knockout, Narrative Magazine, New Madrid, Other Poetry, Otoliths, Ottawa Arts Review, Pank, Quay, Riddle Fence, The Pedestal Magazine, and T-Zero. She has been nominated three times for the Pushcart Prize and twice for the Science Fiction Poetry Association’s Rhysling Award. Her publication credits can be viewed here.

© 2009 Kristine Ong Muslim