By Lawrence “Mack in Texas” Hall
“You Did It!”
As Colonel Pickering might say
On occasion my wristwatch reads, “You did it!”
At first I appreciated the congratulations
Though I wasn’t sure of the diddly-did I did
Until I sinked or synched the watch to something else
Whereupon I learned that my watch was praising me
For somehow managing to stand on my feet –
High praise for a drunk or an invalid (may I say so?)
But since so little praise comes to me, I accept it
I imagine standing before the King of Sweden
Who awards me the Nobel for standing at all
Stay Close to the Telephone
“Stay close to the telephone,” they used to say
Stay close to that Western Electric on the desk or wall
Since news of great importance might come your way
A message from the shop or some emergency call
“Stay close to the telephone” – you couldn’t go out
Without breaking contact in an hour of need
You could only wait in place in fear and doubt
For an order at last to move with speed
“Stay close to the telephone?” It had no reach
But a modern ‘phone drains you like a bloody leech
The March of the Triumphalist Electrons
“Forward, Electronics, your victory’s achieved!
In all communications, progress is our creed!”
-Communist youth song in
Solzhenitsyn’s “For the Good of the Cause”
In all obedience learn to code, to code
For in obeying orders you think for yourself
And rebel by chanting and clenching your fist
As an individual just like everyone else
Now burn your poems, your notebooks, and your pens
And slaughter your thoughts wherever they hide
We will send you your soul through a little screen
Unisize, unisex, one soul fits all
And then, like Moloch and Herod, turn your wild eyes
Your burning eyes
Upon your children
LogoSophia Magazine 