Photo by  Michał Lis via Unsplash

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Today’s prompt asks us to “move backwards in time away from such modern contrivances as podcasts. Today, I challenge you to write a poem that features forgotten technology. Maybe it’s a VCR, or a rotary phone. A cassette player or even a radio. If you’re looking for a potential example, check out this poem by Adam Clay, which takes its central metaphor from something that used to stoke fear in the hearts of kids typing term papers, or just trying to play a game of Oregon Trail.” ~ NaPoWriMo, Day 17

After several attempts to get to some interesting material about my encounters with (now) obsolete technology, I gave up and decided to write another cento with lines from poems that mention technology explicitly or obliquely. I kept adding, deleting, switching lines around in the hope that some meaning would emerge, but now I’m tired and can’t think clearly, so I’m letting this Frankensteinian monster be. It’s work in progress. I’m missing the electric current that would jolt this creature into existence.

PS–Most of the poems written this April will remain online for up to five days, after which they will be replaced by an excerpt, an erasure, or a thoroughly amateurish art piece that will only allow for bits of the original poem to peek through. At least, this is the plan. The reason being that, at some point, in the hopefully not too distant future, these drafts will undergo revision and begin their multiple-year pilgrimage through the slush piles of many a literary journal. So help me, O Muse.

PPS–Another day, another erasure. The seashell angels have become my constant companions. Not sure what I would do without them. Today they gave me seashell flowers. No reason. They say I deserve them. I think a lot of people do these days.

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Poetry from the trenches, Day 17

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