The speaker confesses something unusual: she has fallen in love with a printing press. She watches its dark brown gears turn with steady, rhythmic movements, and she is hypnotized by how carefree and tireless it seems. She keeps coming back, even though she worries that people think she is crazy, and one man's hostile look sends her away in pain. She begins to wonder whether enough love, or even her soul, could turn the machine into something human.
When she returns after several days away, the press is gone from the workshop and lies among trash and broken things on an empty building site, silent and still. She realizes she has been "a miserable romantic." The ending is the saddest part. A few raindrops on the machine make her ask whether it is crying, and she prays to bring it back, but the rain grows heavier and she leaves hopeless.
The mood moves from wonder and obsession to loneliness, shame, and quiet grief. The slightly awkward English gives the speaker a raw, sincere voice.