mecha visits little tokyo

I was born steel-reinforced
into mother serenity:
the growl of a metal-frame
mecha waiting to respond
to my exhalations

fetal in a chrome womb
throbbing bass heartbeat

reverse
drive

palimpsest smog and blue
gives way to the haze of distance
outlining sun-faded skylines

I am not a monster here
not a split-brained beast
who finds peace only
in a two-ton death machine

my mind’s skinner godzillas
become shadowboxed,
snakes clutched claw-strong
in my harpy talons

here, after I pull up curbside
and park mecha with two hours
on the meter, headlights winking out

I can be anyone
kowtowing sumimasen

little tokyo, float my world
into an ukiyo mask of anonymity


—S. Qiouyi Lu