Explanatory note: Okay, so, I feel like I must not be a very good poet if I have to write an explanatory note. But, well, so be it! I wrote this in January 2017 when my daughter was obsessed with Mother Goose rhymes (such as "This is the house that Jack built") and I was obsessed with Wendell Berry.
I.
This is the machine that Jack built.
This is the product, plastic and frail
Designed by the manufacturer to fail
That’s made by the machine that Jack built.
These are the workers, all forlorn
Estranged from the product, plastic and frail
Designed by the manufacturer to fail
That’s made by the machine that Jack built.
These are the dreams, all tattered and torn,
Obscured in the workers, all forlorn
Estranged from the product, plastic and frail
Designed by the manufacturer to fail
That’s made by the machine that Jack built.
This is the world of poisoned streams
That aches for the workers’ forgotten dreams
That drown in a shake
Made with real ice cream
And Jack, never a great appreciator of irony,
Walks out of the movie theater
Saying “Wouldn’t it be awful if robots really did take
over the world?”
II.
This is the seed that sprouted
This is the berry the little boy found
And planted with ignorant hope in the ground
Which held the seed that sprouted
This is the wonder and this is the awe
He never forgot from the moment he saw
The stalk risen up at no human command
Designed by some other Invisible Hand
And everyone worried that Jack Jr. wasn’t
A go-getter like his father
But the silent spirits of the trees felt his quiet
attention
And in his darkness something was growing.
