The Boy with the Mechanical Heart.

The boy with the mechanical heart -- born with -- only parts of his organs intact -- his father, a local train-yard engineer, respected and feared both the same, refused to let his only son die like a runt. So one night late, he storms in there; the hospital where his boy was being kept, just him and his brother in-law, a cardboard box for moving the kid, and a glass jug with a tube drilled down the middle, for pumping the blood through. This was meant to be the in-law's only task, to keep the boy safe, but of course, he was overwhelmed with fear, nearly blowing the entire thing... but that's not really important, just an amusing little side-note. So they get the boy home, safe and sound, and the father locks himself away in his laboratory, determined to put together a synthetic heart, capable of keeping his boy fit for a normal lifespan of about sixty years or so. And he tries just about everything, from an actual cows heart, to electronic -- neon -- microwave... but finds nothing that works as well as the jug had been... and then came his first attempt at a mechanical heart -- powered by steam, through fire and coal -- he built 13 more until finally perfecting it's design, inserting it into his son's chest with great results. Of course, anyone who knows this story will tell you flat out; the point of it was simply, how horrible this boy's life must be, never able to feel, or even give love to another, mainly his father, who's shown so much for him... but I took something else from it... something completely different...

fin
All Poems © 2001-2007 Blister Herzog, all rights reserved.