# Clockwork: City of Gears

Author: ShingetsuMoon
Tags: City, Fantasy, Machines, Mechs, Poem, Poetry, Science Fiction, Steampunk, gears

#10 of Poems

This poem is based off of a story idea of the same name that I came up with yesterday. It's a fantasy/science fiction world that stretches the limits of the imagination. I hope that I'll be able to turn it into a full length book one day!

A city made up of gears.  
Small ones that could fit  
in your palm. Large ones  
that stand as large as   
towering skyscrapers.

There are no buildings  
or homes here. At least   
not the kind that you would  
be thinking of.

Gear driven machines   
tangle and weave together  
until they stretch down so far   
that everything turns pitch   
black and the earth itself  
falls away.

Tread carefully among   
the moving catwalks for  
if you fall then some say  
that you will fall forever  
until you reach the heart   
of the earth.

Towers of gears and metal  
sides reach up into   
the heavens not quite able  
to touch the sky.

Clock towers ticking away  
at the hours lift their heads  
up above the sprawling  
mechanics. Forever staring  
towards a horizon where  
the sun never fully rises  
but never seems to set.

Some say they are counting  
down but to what? No one  
can say. Is it to the birth of a  
hero? Or to Clockwork's   
final day?

Listen closely in the twilight  
to the birds of gears and wire.  
For they tell of a dark day coming  
and a chilling threat most dire.

Bathed in the eternal   
twilight haze the gears  
turn on and on. Unaware of  
what they count down to.  
Or the fate that looms ahead.

Water to drive the gears.  
Gears to draw up the water.  
Everything runs in a cycle  
around the pulsing energy   
of Clockwork. A beating  
heart that turns countless  
gears.

But beware the mighty  
Drakenguard. The great  
dragon mechs who guard  
the gears. For they have  
long forgotten their purpose  
for creation and now forge  
a new one based around   
little knowledge they have left.

Protect the humans.  
Guard them at all costs.  
Do not allow them to be   
exterminated.

Live quietly and obey the   
strict rules of your masters  
if you wish to live to see  
another day.

For the Draken may be   
harsh masters, but they shall  
fight with dying breath to  
fulfill their duty and guard  
those few humans who remain.

Slavers, overlords, call them  
what you will, but they are  
nothing compared to the  
evils they keep at bay.

Wedged in among the gears  
in constructs of ancient metal  
is the last settlement of humans  
that yet remains.

Carefully watched over by the  
sentient machines who control  
every aspect of their lives from  
birth to death.

But fear not the Drakenguard  
and do not disobey. For they  
are the guardian angels who  
shall keep the darkness away.

Great evil is coming closer  
their lust for power growing  
stronger. Do not let them near  
the heart of Clockwork or   
another city shall come to a stop.

Frozen in time for all eternity.

You see Clockwork is not a true   
city at all at least not the kind you  
might imagine.

It is quite literally a machine.  
An endlessly moving mechanical   
structure blow up to massive   
proportions.

Each corner of it pulsing with   
power and smoothly turning  
on in precisely the right   
rhythm. Each and every gear  
interconnected with all the   
others around it.

A sprawling, interconnected  
machine that stretches on for  
miles both around and below.  
Each piece set exactly in the  
right order. Each gear operating  
smoothly. From those that fit  
in your hand to those that   
tower larger then mountains.

Ancient does not even come  
close to describing the great  
majesty of the City of Gears.

A place that counts time  
yet is older then time itself.

Listen to it hum and shudder  
turning and clicking around  
the tiny lives making their way  
inside its metal structures.

Search to the ends of the planet  
to the farthest corners of your  
imagination but there is none  
other like it and never will   
there be again.

Because for all the great cities  
that exist like the most priceless  
and unique artwork...

..there is not a single one in   
the world that operates just like  
Clockwork.

Source: https://sofurry.com/s/Rm0oJ4ve
Part of the series Poems
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