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Machines Making Mischief
What happened to the TV?
It fizzed and popped and crackled
Until the repairman came
The microwave burnt my popcorn
In a shower of sparks
What’s going on?
What will we do?
All the machines
Are breaking
And disappearing
Too
The printer wouldn’t stop
It gave me a gazillion papers
Before it went ker-plop!
The oven was smoking
And shaking
Like a desperate addict
It has broken my counters
And sent the dishes toppling
The shelving was a mess
And my phones
Oh, how I thought they’d never stop!
Their ringing and bleeping
Were driving me crazy
The toaster has splintered
Into a thousand shiny needles
The cuckoo was working ninety minutes an hour
My car—my car!
Has found a new shape;
An hourglass with no sand
The shredder grew teeth
And gobbled up all my paper
Every musically electronic device was blaring
Every song they’ve ever heard
The thunderstorm outside
Was playing havoc with my lighting
I think it turned to ash
Every lamp in my possession
The dishwasher coughed up my dishes
In a fountain of hysterics
The faucet cried
And flooded the room
The icemaker was shoveling ice like crazy—
Every shape you ever heard of was flying across the room
The freezer took control of the kitchen
Arresting it from the oven
The fireplace was shooting columns of fire twenty feet high
Fire-bullets and ice-spears were exchanged
Between countries;
Ice
Kitchen
And Fire
Den
What’s going on?
What will we do?
All the machines
Are breaking
And disappearing
Too
The stereo, the radio
The fireplace and freezer
Dishwasher and icemaker
Shredder and sharpener
My printer and the phones
They’re all broken
And disappearing
One
by
one
The TV and the oven
The toaster, and faucet
The clocks and lamps
Whatever shall I do
Without my masters of work?
Oh, no!
They are all gone—
I just knew it
But—
Oh, thank god—
The computer
the microwave
the refrigerator;
They’re still here
I just knew they would be
For I am
Alive
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