Golden case cuffed to my wrist
box of tech firecrackers:
time navigator –
I hoped to snag a trace of you
outside Maccadam’s Oil House;
unrecordable weapon
to shatter foes, siphon
their screams.
Spark’s white heat exported
to hard currency.
Paradox-exempt time hopper
existential gun jetting
a fatal squib of ennui –
my scrambled spark’s ravings.
What would I say to you
outside Maccadam’s Oil House?
How defuse an enemy?
The code I chew on
fitting parts
putting out the trash.
IAN MCLACHLAN’s collaborative pamphlet, Confronting the Danger of Art, was published by Sidekick Books in 2011. His poems have been published in a wide variety of journals and anthologies, including The Rialto, Magma and The Wolf.