I pray thee, most holy,
mechanical & mercantile god,
take us out of our perplexing time,
toward sometime else & other.
“Toward the complexity advancing at you?”
a booming voice from heaven wants to know.
No!
Back!!
Yesterday!
The day before yesterday!
Last year!
A month before last year!
Years before!
Decades!
Advantage without
advance.
Before coal mines were sealed.
Before the red iron hardened,
Before coats were stitched over distances.
Before machinery’s buzz went silent.
Before good business was bad for America.
Before the modern mind muddled.
Before the smell of rotting virtues
drove the cook from the kitchen.
Before the city set on a hill slipped-
slunk into the valley of the shadow.
Digital deity,
our amorous god,
hear our prayer:
Bring back the
buzzwhirlhum.
Bring back coal dust
peppered pink lungs.
Bring back the fog,
the choke & the gasp.
Sew the flag
in our underwear,
again.
Make shirts and ties
red, white, and blue
again.
Make tomorrow
a replica of Eisenhower’s
euphoric yesterday.
O one-eyed gobbling god,
to you all glory & most love.
And knowing I could bless a better god,
and so have on occasion done, still,
it is you I bow before,
most gracious lord of comfort & convenience.
I pray thee,
please continue and expand.