This poem is a direct result of driving around Cape Breton Island, listening to the Gorillaz' (and Dennis Hopper's) "Fire Coming Out of the Monkey's Head", and mulling over Dan Simmons' Ilium, a curious tale about the Trojan War on Mars, among other things. And if this reminds you of the Iron Giant, that's okay, too. Stuff written on one's honeymoon need not be very original or amazing, as long as it's about robots.

The Lighthouse Cove

At the edge of the world
where green grass meets blue sea
a lighthouse stands
where it has kept vigil
for over a century
guiding ships safely
past the rocks

Then one day
with a sea storm's suddenness
a giant black robot
over a hundred feet tall
and not quite humanoid
descended from space
and landed
next to the lighthouse

The residents of the sleepy little cove
watched with apprehension
and wariness
waiting for the strange thing
to do something
anything
probably devour them all
but all it did
was incline its head
toward the heavens

Slowly they overcame their fear
and approached the black shell
the robot didn't devour anyone
it didn't react at all
the braver boys discovered
that it made a hollow clanging sound
when you hit it with a rock
and the girls drew on it with chalk

Inevitably the government came
and so did the tourists
while the residents went about their lives
some of them got jobs as tour guides
in the Robot Interpretive Center
all the while
the lighthouse stood guard
and the robot didn't move
though sometimes its eyes glowed
different colors

The government and all its
secret organizations
could not discover the robot's origins
though there were lots of books
with all kinds of
conspiracy theories
and crackpot hypotheses
sparking endless debate
and boredom
while the robot stood tall
next to the lighthouse

Many years later
with no warning
the robot flew away
leaving the lighthouse behind
where it remained impassive
searching the seas for ships in distress
while the citizens scanned the skies
to no avail
so they returned to their lives
in their sleepy little village
now devoid of government and tourists
and they renamed it
Robot's Cove