“The Angel of Obsolete Technologies” by Jeremy Paden

as it moves about its wunderkammer
and rearranges ziggurats of Underwoods

and sorts stacks of floppy disks by size
dusts the wall of Logitech and JVC boomboxes

or motors about through arches of VHS
and Betamax in its Detroit Electric car

up-to-datedness, early adopters
creative destruction,
it mutters

sometimes as it sits at a treadle powered
Singer the sight of the bobbin will bring

to mind expert hands sliding a shuttle
through the warp thread and it will think

of a room filled with pinecones used to card wool
each still fuzzy with the stories shared

as women labored with their children
as children dreamed of something more durable

less painful and it wonders at the human
spirit, its generosity and cruelty

-Jeremy Paden

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