THE BIGGEST MACHINE:

Pushing back from his bowl of midnight ice he leaned across the isle & motioned me to lean in.
“That is the biggest machine that has ever come here”
pointing with his eyes, nodding a head towards two rows of enormous caterpillar tracks slipping precariously between the buildings, dwarfing the trees, but brushing them as delicate as whispers. A familiar childhood smell of machine oil & excavated earth pervaded our cafe as the lights across the road were suddenly eclipsed by the vast metal bulk teetering on the back of a flat bed rolling like a ship in a swell.
“How did they know they could bring it this way?” I asked open mouthed
“Exactly” he replied

(K)