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Homepage / Food For Thought / The Beast Upon The Wire The Beast Upon The Wire Suppose and then suppose and then suppose That wires on the far-slung telephone black poles Supped up the billion flooded words they heard Each night all night and saved the sense And meaning of it all. Then, jigsaw in the night, put all together And in philosophic phrase Tried words like moron child, Numb-shocked electric idiot, mindless babe Alone upon its spider-threaded harpstrung poles, Incredulous of syllables that shimmer dazzle down Along swift thunder-lightning streams In sizzlings and fermentings of power. Thus mindless beast, all treasuring of vowels And consonants, Saves up a miracle of bad advice And lets it filter, seep, experiment, One hissing stutter heartbeat whisper at a time So one night soon someone in dark America Hears sharp bell ring, lifts phone And hears a voice like Holy Ghost gone far in nebulae- That Beast upon the wire, That pantomimes with lipless, tongueless mouth The epithets and slaverings of a billion unseen lovers Across continental madnesses of line in midnight sky, And with savorings and sibilance says: Hell . . . and then 0. And then Hell-O. To such creation- Such dumb brute wise Electric Beast, What is your wise reply? Ray Bradbury |
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