Saturating the atmosphere and filling up our insides
Dark clouds of hope
After we lose or fail, the hope runs out
We become impatient
At war with a headache when we don’t get our fix
In our lungs the hope to create something beyond a mere prototype

The insatiable lights to a small flame
Burning a piece of coal, one after another  
See, it puts the fuel into our shiny new motor cars

We are a kingdom of control
A conquest upon nature
Destroying
Taking
Building

We build our own Colossus
Dressed in sheets of iron merging with altitude
Nuts and bolts adorn the corners of the sheets  
He towers while standing for our achievements and looks down upon the tiny world below
“More!” We shout amongst ourselves.

We feel our limbs stiffen and our joints ache
Skin transforms into something strange
Durable
Polished
Metal

Fill these joints with oil, work faster
Part A, then part B to part C
Oil is in short supply for us little machines  
Big machines control the stuffy, gray factory
Big machines hold the oil
Almost all of it

They store it in big, locked vats
They let only a few drops plunge into our tiny sockets
They only loosen the tap right before the Colossus shows signs of rust

The warning bells ring and we are called to the front line
We scale the massive statue, building ladders on our way up
Pollution remains a speculation
The ship is unsinkable
The moon is only a few days away
We land there for eight minutes

Dreams fill our heads like laughing gas
During the sunlight
Under the soot
But the soot begins to take our sunlight

The warning bells stop ringing
Or perhaps our ears can no longer fathom the sound

The Colossus begins to tarnish
The oil taps are jammed with residue

Our gears and shifts and pulleys refuse to listen
We the machinery, begin to corrode
Under gloomy weather, we can still see
Steam
Possibility
Ingenuity
A skeleton of attempts left unscathed

A facade of logic and measurements
We the machinery embodied a gilded romance
Limited by the magnitude of our own strides