2018 - ON NON-ROLLER SKATES
hey! i didn't put on any roller skates
and yet i've skidded all over the place!
one stop New Year
Happy New Year, hey!
come to my wedding...
wedding slipped into a birthday
long-lost and well-loved faces loom -
they smile and sing happy birthday
and i smile back and promise to keep in touch
and i'm aware there's something wrong
someone is not happy for me
someone thinks i...
someone...but hey!
it's time to go back
now, for sometime, a semblence of mundane
but you've won a prize
YOU'VE WON A PRIZE
Uh...Uh...yes, I've won a prize
I'm tired, I'm breathless
Hang on a second!
while I digest that
piece of information
oh...
oh yes, "I'VE WON A PRIZE!!'
Yey!!! But hey!
Don't give it to me yet
I've gotta a death anniversary coming up
the tenth one
I can't laugh, I can't celebrate
I must cry
and you must wait till I'm done crying before I say
Yey! again, but only this time
I know, we've won a prize
I look down the road of 2018 now
Alarmed at the pace at which it's moving
and I still don't have roller skates on!
Tomorrow I join a new job
day after, I publish a magazine
Sometime I shall breathe too
and before I can say, "Hallelujah!" 2018 will be done.
Roller Skates -- Camellia Jiles
The 1st mention of roller skates was in 1743 for a London stage performance, but they were officially invented in 1760 by Jean-Joseph Merlin, known as John Joseph Merlin after he moved from Belgique to the UK. Thomas Busby reported an incident connected to this invention: "One of his ingenious novelties was a pair of skaites contrived to run on wheels. Supplied with these and a violin, he mixed in the motley group of one of Mrs Cowleys' masquerades at Carlisle House; when not having provided the means of retarding his velocity, or commanding its direction, he impelled himself against a mirror of more than five hundred pounds value, dashed it to atoms, broke his instrument to pieces and wounded himself most severely." In addition to roller skates he also devised a self-propelled wheelchair (doubtless useful after his roller skating woes); a lifesize clockwork-driven "Silver Swan" automaton that turned its head from side to side, preened itself, and seemed to catch small silver fish in a stream of rotating glass rods; a clock that was powered by changes in atmospheric pressure; a communication system for summoning servants; a prosthetic device for amputees; cards for the blind; a pump for expelling foul air; a pedal-operated tea table; a mechanical chariot that contained an odometer; a barrel-organ-harpsichord; and in 1775 a 6-octave pianoforte (15 years before John Broadwood & Sons introduced a 5 1/2-octave grand piano, which was not modified for a full 6 octaves until 1794.
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