Light My Love
An oddly shaped ode to a custom made lamp
(Up on your pedestal, I send you my love, for—)
I know the hands that hammered this arch into a hook, a handle for a pocket watch. I know the fingers that have since broken in their passion for crafting your kin; the legs that march for spare parts scattered, junk stores in our town; the lungs inhaling metal and garage dusts; the beard that is graying nine hairs at a time from start to luminary finish.
You are an electrical system wrapped inside a shell, yet such a world is brought with you, a world I love, for he bled over you, hours into months, so I know it, feel it, see it in my every day. You are the extension of a soul who knows my own from its birth, who saw the glass box you once were and thought, “I can put a light in there” and did.
(Edison’s to be exact, plus two flickering reds, with a satisfying click-switch and vintage, of course.)
I know the mind that sees time as a speeding bullet, but that adores the gears inside a pocket, quartz, wall-mounted, grandfather, and adds them to the likes of you—and I like you. I hear that mind as an eager gear itself, actualizing in mini-me’s, always breaking open and repairing, therapy and injury.
(I ask you, what is the difference?)
It is you I love, for your atmospheric warmth, smooth reflective curves, your timeless “of an age” beauty that etches your very being. You belong in a museum/futurism expo, all oxidized brass and hooked latticed door latch, two red-stoned flower petal knobs making symmetrical the hand-warped hook for a crowning tree fob watch.
Tonight I listen to the switch flip, trigger happiness within my own soul, your glimmering map to trace a line from birth to death and give me light to see love embedded in each fiber of brass glass wood
and time itself.
About the Creator
Mackenzie Davis
“When you are describing a shape, or sound, or tint, don’t state the matter plainly, but put it in a hint. And learn to look at all things with a sort of mental squint.” Lewis Carroll
Find me elsewhere.
Copyright Mackenzie Davis.
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Comments (10)
This is absolutely mesmerising, just as the lamp itself. Sprinting to nominate this for TS but will be back with more thoughts!
Mackenzie, I just saw this. It's beautiful. So much more than an ode to a lamp--an ode to life, the light within, and the switch flip. My mother once made a blanket for me. She told me to put it around my shoulders when she could no longer hug me. Your poem evoked this memory. An eternal honor.
Ah, the treasures of yore & the stories they have to tell. Such a blessing.
I don't think anyone would have been able to write an ode about that lamp more beautifully than you did! Wonderful work!
These red lights and the shadows they cast create a somewhat eerie effect. Made me think of witches😅 But then I decided to read your od(d)e. Beautiful piece! 'I hear that mind as an eager gear itself, actualizing in mini-me’s, always breaking open and repairing, therapy and injury. ' - so eloquent and vivd! I caught myself repeating 'eager gear' again and again with different intonations:)
When is an object not just an object? When a brilliant poet decides, "I can put a light in there." Your love for this object and its maker is a tribute to the joy and the cost of creation. I think my favorite line is, "the beard that is graying nine hairs at a time from start to luminary finish."
Your words have served to make the lamp even more precious! + I wish I was a moth because that is one smick lamp!
The lamp is really one of a kind, does the middle bulb light up red? The Ode sets its block squarely on its pedestal, to confront the reader with the story of its past and its creator. Objects can be so very imbued with that sense of time, and memory of a loved one. Very lambent and metallic, good workmanship!
This...is...incredible! Stunning custom lamp and astonishing ode! You poured so much into this! Very well done, Mackenzie!
This is sublime, Mackenzie. So many layers, such heady imagery... an ode to the maker as well as the lamp itself. I love your oddly shaped ode, and now I love your lamp as well.