-three ring pinkie

today i wear sensor collars

home from work. i place them 

on right pinkie finger for safekeeping

when i crack open housings to repair

torn, broken wiring. these things 

are battered around a lot. the collars

are stainless steel and there are no extras.

a flea jumps on my leg, reminds me

there are more important things

that need fixing, but the money comes

from automation repair. to put people 

out of jobs they never wanted in the first place. 

and you ask me why i never write of work?

it's soul less. and it's killing me painfully

with no hope of redemption. sometimes 

there are new problems to solve 

but i've been braindead for so long now

it's tough to get restarted. 

*

butterfly wings are scientific fodder, even.

finally, engineers note evolution's solar collectors

think hey! maybe we could emulate that.

once dna's decoded completely we should be able 

to synthesize anything. it's a matter of will and money.

come and get your share.

789*-

*

here is a picture of a four generations.

father, daughters, grandchildren, great grandchildren.

when he was born, he lived on his pappy's 

tobacco farm in a one room cabin with no running

water or electricity. he and his daddy would go to pappy's

well to fetch water. his puny pail felt like filled with lead

but he couldn't spill one precious drop. if someone 

got sick or hurt, they had to hitch a  mule to a wagon

to bring help. his daddy got a job on the rails and they moved 

to town. they got a phone. and a toilet. when his girls were born

television was the new ritual. movies were technicolored

but tv was black and white. there was one  phone 

in the house. bobby kennedy was shot and vietnam was on tv

and the beatles were banned from their house but his girls

played them anyway, at night very low on their transistor radios.

his wife one daughter  died. his mother died.that's why they're not

in the picture.  his girls had babies

finally  over a span of ten years. he was perplexed

why did they work outside the home? why did they let their kids

play video games, why do you need a cell phone, what is this internet thing.

they try to keep up but the picture is static,the faces smile 

from photostock, printed in color to simulate reality.

someday in an attic someone will find this picture

and wonder which of their relatives this was

and how odd they look, in those turn of the century clothes.