And Yet Fools Say by George S. Holmes

And Yet Fools Say 

by George S. Holmes

He captured light and caged it in a glass,

Then harnessed it forever to a wire;

He gave men robots with no backs to tire

In bearing burdens for the toiling mass.

He freed the tongue in wood and wax and brass,

Imbued dull images with motions’ fire,

Transmuted metal into human choir —

These man-made miracles he brought to pass.

Bulbs banish night along the Great White Way,

Thin threads of copper throb with might unseen;

On silver curtains shadow-actors play

That walk and talk from magic-mouthed machine,

While continents converse through skies o’erhead —

And yet fools say that Edison is dead!