“Do you realize if it weren’t for Edison we’d be watching TV by candlelight? Al Boliska”
He strikes a heroic pose
his bicorne hat cocked at a jaunty angle
he gazes out across the sodden fields of Waterloo
stands in that iconic hand-in-waistcoat gesture
Napoleon’s hand cradles his iPod Touch
dials in the 1812 Overture
on the Classic Works of Russian Composers play list
The streets of Vienna are slick with new fallen snow
he works late into the night
hunched over a desk in the mahogany paneled study
illuminated by soft light from a MacBook Pro laptop
Dr. Freud’s face is a mask of bewilderment
as he Googles the meaning of the idiom:
“Yo Mama!”
The ship’s pilot peers through the astrolabe
sailors cluster together, speak in hushed tones
about sea serpents & sailing off the edge of the earth
Cristoforo Columbo emerges from his cabin
announces the East Indies will have to wait
his search on Mapquest has revealed
they are headed for someplace called The Bahamas
He picks up his fiddle
plays a tune that he can’t get out of his head
he’s just been told there’s trouble at Circus Maximus
“No reason to get get my toga in a twist” he thinks
“It’s only a little fire. How bad could it possibly be?”
Distracted, Nero sets the fiddle down & goes into the other room
to update his Facebook status.
How the tides of history might have turned
had Genghis Khan’s relentless advance
across the steppes been broadcast
on his twitterfeed & The Declaration of Independence
written on GoogleDocs
the Pony Express ~ going nowhere fast
had homesteading rights included
unlimited text messaging
Your Own Back Yard - Michael Gillan Maxwell 