This next poem is strange for me.
It's called "The History of Invention".
This is more or less in order of what humans have accomplished
in their history.
It's sort of tongue in cheek.
In the beginning, cave paintings and harpoons,
potter's wheels, beer, and maps.
Then boats, silk and ink, bathtubs and alphabets, chess,
stirrups, gold coins, roof tiles, and libraries.
Followed by democracy, kites, mausoleums, aqueducts,
gunpowder, vellum books-- a world map.
After that, astrolabes, earthen lamps, circular cities,
and prayer beads.
Whiskey and stained glass, windmills, porcelain, cheese.
Then banks, followed by true-lock gates and chambers,
paper money, sonnets, the compass,
and a Bible for the poor.
Spectacles and watermarks, caricatures, artillery,
gun carrying ships, and the first history of the world.
Then followed padlocks, wooden toy cannons,
toy dolls with movable arms, playing cards and printed
music, wallpaper, carillon bells, a hymn book,
cesarean section, diving bells and artificial limbs.
The camera, obscura, pencils, the pendulum.
Then calendar reform, time bombs and newspapers, slide rules
and classified ads, bayonets, parameters, wheelchairs,
invisible ink, postage stamps, pressure cookers, statistics,
champagne and clarinets.
Jeweled watches, tuning forks, arsenic, boxing gloves,
scissors, sextants, fire escapes, false teeth,
the infinite velocity of light-- rather--
the finite velocity of light.
Then, balloons, rockets, bifocals, bourbon, parachutes,
and mass production.
The wave theory of light, gas-lit streets and morphine.
Canned food, kaleidoscopes, cocoa and microphones,
Morse code, Christmas cards, saxophones, rubber bands.
I think that's where we stopped.