Steam-powered with boilers and kettles
heated by spirit lamps and candles,
with tangled pulleys of knotted string,
they survive the incessant tinkering
of overall-clad bespectacled men
who hope their inventions will work now and then,
refreshing stale scones and removing warts,
throwing water over neighbourhood cats,
complicating the simplest technique –
a genius of the eccentric.
Kim M. Russell, 2018
My response to Poets United Midweek Motif ~ Invention
Today Susan has brought us pictures of inventors, such as Hedy Lamarr; quotations from writers, including Agatha Christie, Ayn Rand and Walt Whitman. She asks what are our favourite inventions of all time, have we ever invented anything or have we ever wanted to? She challenges us to write in a new poem the story of an invention, real or imagined. My poem was ‘found’ on Wikipedia.
writing in north norfolk 
Machinery for removing warts….typical of the madness of Heath Robinson:)
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🙂
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Wonderful detailed findings! Except for the water throwing–though its better than traps: “complicating the simplest technique – a genius of the eccentric.”
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Thank you, Susan, and I agree with you about the water throwing.
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That eccentricity is almost mandatory for genius 🙂
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It sure is! 😊
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loved this… right from an era that interests me greatly… a little eccentricity is right up my alley… 🙂
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Thanks Robert. I couldn’t live without eccentricity. 😊
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“complicating the simplest technique –”…Yeah, that’s him. Nice ode. Thanks for the smile 🙂
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Thanks for reading, Sumana 😊
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I love your humourous response to the prompt. Am late getting here. My sister’s new puppy keeps me hopping.
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Thank you, Sherry.
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