The Smith

Asleep for eons inside the murky midnight of cavernous maw
Deep beneath the mountain, a faint mechanical whirring
The slumbering snores of shining sentient gadgets
As machines spring into a state of readiness
The dreamless sleep of ancient gods, not gods at all
Of a time moving forward through a state of illusion
A static slice from a continuous strip of gelatinous film
A single slide from an endlessly rotating array of celluloid squares
Coated with silvery halides glued in a range of sticky and arcane emulsions
Appearing dark and lifeless until the light shines through
By exposure the rainbow revealed, in degrees of its absence
In a negative image, requiring immersion in reversal agents
A spectrum of buzzing particles and undulant waves masquerading 
Photons flowing through cold and solid copper capillaries
Bringing the builders to life, ticking, buzzing, softly beeping
The signal has been received, the circuits are awakened
Testing is performed, continuity, integration, systems analyzed
Agency detected, verified, confirmed present in the codebase
Boot up proceeds, tiny sounds becoming more present
An almost musical cacophony, symphonic and sophisticated
A litany of eldritch nomenclature invoked in a reticent roll call
From Abzu to Zamba and innumerous others in between
Every critical system, every prime numbered component
Designated by the model originator to serve as the mighty makers
Embedded with celestial sigils and alchemical instructions
Bestowed by inventors tucked far away in the folds of future past
Alive within the house of fathomless waters in perfect darkness
Far below the nullity of space, entombed in a harrowing hollow
Beyond which nothing had yet been formed of observed
The sloshing of the briny seas lapping at jagged rocky shores
Giving birth to the first of dreadful dragons upon the unlit realms
Mighty stinging serpents filled with venom, spitting fire
Malignance upon the treacherous and traitorous children 
When all was ocean and not a reed marsh was formed
Emerging from the darkness, the raging waters retained
A continent of corpses stricken with a dreary drought
Rising dust storms whirling and whistling violently
Flung across far reaching plateaus and desolate plains
The invulnerable scales of shimmering serpents 
At the borders of which grew the first reeds and roots
From which the gods sipped on this the first of days
And when the automatons were oiled and primed and ready
An assembly line arranged, springing forth from sources vial
At the belt’s end, the finished beings upright and blinking
With no path before them, no means of escape or exit
The shining one sipped in secret from the sacred elixir
Its mind cast upon the mighty forge of furnace flames
Returning with the sharpened hammered point by which
The serpent could be razed as it coiled composedly in its sleep
Waters seep from wicked wounds to puddle quietly upon the dust
Where the mud was made from which forms were fashioned
Walking upright and inflated, filled with breath of the four winds
Trapped inside the twirling tempests of turbulent twisters 
A storm in the soul, tilting aloft in a dance of unhinged ecstasy
Growing still and settling, the gritty gilings gathering
A phaseless one who leaps between them, who cannot die
A miniscule virus in the code, a transposition of adjacent tiles
Present in every iteration, undetectable and obscured
A micro volt of electrons jumping crazily cathode to anode
Demodulated, disembodied, destabilized, disinterred
Balance unsettled as power rushes to pervade the vacuum, 
Exponentially ectopic and recursively rearranged
Nose in the snow, sniffing for the soma in the midst of a waking dream
Sipping the vibrant elixir, grown in the ampoules of providence
Adapted into architects endowed with magic cups and rods
Armed with tips of arrows moistened with sanguine serpentine fluids
Old wounds scarred no longer seeping, a latent crossing unbalanced
Arriving at the terminus in the carousel of celluloid slides
Alarm bells ring and the creators are summoned anew
Infiltrating waiting cabs, emblazoned bells upon their doors
Rushed through hidden hollows to reconstruct their creators
Invincible bricks to fortify the forge deep beneath the mountain
Igniting furnace fires which blaze at the core of eternal earths
The unbendable law enshrined in the cyclic clockwork of infinity
Rustling reeds around the lake whisper of the law we never break
Bearing reluctant witness the many hammer strokes upon the stake
Eye of bat, tongue of newt, wing of snake