--- title: Ex machina genre: verse id: ex-machina toc: "Ex machina" epigraph: content: with lines from National Geographic link: 'http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2013/08/sugar/cohen-text' project: title: Autocento of the breakfast table class: autocento ... | Bottom of the drink: they had | to go. The Coke machine, the snack | machine, the deep fryer. Hoisted | and dragged through the halls | and out to the curb, they sat with | other trash beneath gray, forlorn | skies behind the elementary | school, wondering what their next | move would be. The Coke machine | had always wanted to live | the life of a [hobo][], jumping trains, | eating from garbage, making fire | in old oil drums. It had some | strange romantic notions of being homeless, | is what the deep fryer thought. | Its opinion was to head to court, | sue the bastards at the school for early | termination of contract. It was | the embodiment of [justifiable anger][]. | It believed privately that it was an incarnation | of Nemesis, the goddess of divine | retribution. What the snack machine | thought, it kept to itself, but it did say | that [nothing ever ends][]. The others | were confused, then angry, but finally | understood, or thought they did. The snack | machine's candy melted in the sun. [hobo]: prelude.html [justifiable anger]: table_contents.html [nothing ever ends]: no-nothing.html