Uploaded August 2024 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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85 Back to the Drawing Board
1
I used to joke about it
In my Memphis Monday day’s.
It seemed like all my new ideas
Had already been right and truly made.
2
In seventy-three after college and the Army,
I worked at Mid-states steel and wire factory.
Working around those big machines
I found especially satisfactory.
3
There I made a friend, his name was John.
We pondered only topics unimportant;
No religion or politics allowed,
Or anything otherwise discordant.
4
So we mostly discussed mechanical things.
John wanted to take up blacksmithing.
But of course, I knew everything then,
So, I tended toward inventing.
5
Then one day I told John
About my million dollar invention.
With several others in the lunch room that day,
I was bound to get some attention.
6
On my day off I had built some stilts
That strap to your legs and boots.
I was excited of course and anticipated
That with a patent I’d be rolling in loot.
7
The lunchroom erupted in mocking laughter,
And it wasn’t a supportive happy cheer.
John whispered, “You just invented drywall stilts,”
“They’ve been around for a hundred years.”