Pint-sized robot boy, post-atomic Pinocchio.

My searchlight eyes, laser fingers & machine

Gun bum. Energy cassettes fed me, progeny

Of Tezuka: Jap culture sick of giant things –

Yamato, Hiroshima, Godzilla, Ronin Mishima.

A machine family loved me, management too.

Interstices of human and robot law governed

Who? Being a titanium Telemachus I longed

For father figures but found enemies instead.

Robot Vikings, Bruton, even a bronze-clad twin.

Brother Atlas – his lightning sword & Pegasus

Hurt, but even he found a new heart: albeit tin.

I fought mostly for that mechanical Holy Grail

A soul to make this little robot boy whole again.