In the early centuries
Telephones were robust things
Often only defeated by lightning strikes:
Bakelite heavy, noisy but ringing with connection.
Now they have shrunk to minor size
Fabulously enhanced
With a panoply of agency:
So many things to do
So may prompts to set
So many lives to forget
And yet
The old grunt that kept us wired
Seems herculean
Against the intermittent pallor
Of our shady broadband.
Fibre grates against the copper wire
Frozen into disregard, unmediated
Dropped down, dropped out, no good:
Every hour, its limp speed
Nation-building frustration
Across the countryside.
Telephony at home
Is now a willful thing
Buffered, city centric
Never on the mend
As loss devours the old ways.
Sic transit gloria:
In the early centuries
Telephony was a robust thing.
dedicated to Malcom Turnbull and innovation par excellence
July 2019
Gar Jones
Telephones were robust things
Often only defeated by lightning strikes:
Bakelite heavy, noisy but ringing with connection.
Now they have shrunk to minor size
Fabulously enhanced
With a panoply of agency:
So many things to do
So may prompts to set
So many lives to forget
And yet
The old grunt that kept us wired
Seems herculean
Against the intermittent pallor
Of our shady broadband.
Fibre grates against the copper wire
Frozen into disregard, unmediated
Dropped down, dropped out, no good:
Every hour, its limp speed
Nation-building frustration
Across the countryside.
Telephony at home
Is now a willful thing
Buffered, city centric
Never on the mend
As loss devours the old ways.
Sic transit gloria:
In the early centuries
Telephony was a robust thing.
dedicated to Malcom Turnbull and innovation par excellence
July 2019
Gar Jones
