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Press these lungs with a flat-iron

Weave these veins with steel wire

Place a clamp around this skull

And crank it tighter, tighter, tighter

Suffocating with an oxygen tank

In touch but out of reach

Stifled by the unspoken

On trial for a steady drum beat

Fingertips slicked with oil

No longer able to keep

The gears and winding trinkets

Required to cast the mold

Behold the weary architect

Elbows locked and heart askance

The subtleties of liberation

Make onerous work for tired hands

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