Incantations Over Alloys
by Kaz Sussman
for the carburetor gladiator
O spirit of alloys, valves and kin
I sacrifice to you my knuckle skin.
O floating butterfly choke and rotor
get the juice to the damn motor.
O spirit of alloys, valves and kin
I sacrifice to you my knuckle skin.
Spark, fire and suck up fuel,
grant me luck and work now tool.
O spirit of alloys, valves and kin
I sacrifice to you my knuckle skin.
Choke it out easy, bleed out the glitch,
work now tool, you son of a bitch!
Kaz Sussman is a carpenter by trade, an anarchist by nature, and an expatriate New Yorker by circumstance. He got into poetry (just like everyone else) because he knows that’s where the big bucks are. He now lives in a home he built in Oregon from recycled rejection letters. His work as a writer and artist has seen some regional success, including From Here We Speak: an Anthology of Oregon Poetry. His work is upcoming in Dance Macabre.
qarrtsiluni 
Oh, I like this.
Love it. Should be included within the packaging of all power tools.
Was in Mexico one time and this gringo was freaking because his car kept shutting down when he started it up. He finally got it to a garage and it pretended like nothing was wrong. He was banging on the dash and swearing at it, and I was like, “Speak respectfully to the car and it will respond positively.” A few months later a Jamaican poet housemate, one of the most spiritual people I’ve ever known, was trying to get the stove lit, and I was expecting some kind of blessing from her, but she was like, “Light, goddamn you!” and it did.
Oh, man, yes.