INTELLIGENCE
Others are plain smart.
Most of us a mere so-so,
A few dumb off the chart!
Scholars are the genius types.
They put most of us to shame.
When interviewed on TV,
They make us think again.
They express themselves so clearly.
They strip away the chaff.
Of all they things they know,
I wish I knew, say, half.
I appeal for their indulgence.
I’m in the so-so sphere.
Please speak a little slower,
My mind’s behind my ear!
ELECTRICITY
You hardly know it’s there,
And then the lights go out,
The TV doesn’t work,
All is gloom and doubt.
What the Hell has happened?
Are wires down somewhere?
Has the power plant been bombed?
Is war about to flare?
It’s like the Middle Ages,
Trying to read by candlelight,
Heat from the fireplace,
Phantoms in the night.
Who’s that lurking in the yard?
What’s that noise I hear?
Will it be like this forever?
Is it in my mind, the fear?
At last the lights go on.
It was just a local thing.
Someone struck a pole,
A drunken ding-a-ling.
Electricity is a miracle,
Without it what would we do?
When the power fails,
We appreciate it anew.
Those who supply it
Deserve our encomiums.
Let us be grateful,
At least, till the next bill comes!
THE INTERNET
Right at my fingertips,
As I write this simple verse,
Is a tool that has no equal,
A gift of untold worth.
I refer to the Internet,
All knowledge to be had,
Waiting to be accessed
By the bright, bold and the mad!
A few well chosen keystrokes,
And there’s what I wish to know:
Say, the myths of ancient Greece,
The works of Burns or Poe.
While on line I check the spelling,
And definitions of what I say.
I have no good excuse
If my usage goes agley!*
The Internet’s my bookshelf,
My Oxford and my don.
Some day I’ll be a scholar.
(I should live so long!)
*A good Scottish word. See Robbie Burns!
