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truth in photocopiers

I’ll tell you a story,
a true one.
It’s starts out boring,
but gets better.
I worked as a photocopier
(how demeaning is that?
when your job title is the name of your machine.)
But I digress.
I worked as a photocopier.
Not your little office machines.
Great big industrial motherfuckers.
(glad I’m not a great big industrial motherfucker)
I digress easily,
sorry,
it was a boring job.
Reproducing,
not life,
endless needless things seldom read.
(I’m getting near the interesting bit)
(but it gets more boring first)
I had to clean the glass.
Well, these great big etceteras
don’t scan the document,
like your little office ones,
they oomph!
A big flash of light you can physically feel.
So, leaning over the glass,
trying to remove a stubborn bit of shmeck,
groping around for the sprayer,
I accidentally hit “Start” and
oomph!
right in my face.

And saw the souls of the newly dead
rising from their bodies
all over the planet.
It was curious.
There were greeters.
Those who believed in Christ were ushered off one way
(even the Catholics)
Muslims went another,
etcetera etcetera
those who believed in transmigration
joined the queue to come back.
The undecideds got to make a choice.
The athiests looked rather startled,
and vanished.
Some wouldn’t budge
and became ghosts.

Then it got scary.
The Christian heaven,
the Christian god,
was nothing more than all those souls joined together
and it was getting bigger.
Same with all the other religions.

After hours of watching,
fascinated, awed and scared
I decided on none of those fates and looked around.

The oomph was still in the air
and in my eyes,
half-blinded.
A workmate laughed.
I went home.

https://soundcloud.com/jess-tapper/truth-in-photocopiers-by-jess

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Comments

putting ones self in the poem in the right way. This has a serious reminder for me. When my heart crashed, and I hallucinated a vision. A coil of streaming lights with lights streaking overhead to join it, and dim static blobs rolling toward the coil along the ground. Indeed your dome is hard wired for some serious special effects. I can accept that all it comes to is ones software showing what one subconsciously reserves. OOmph!

In ink,
David

the brain is Organic Light and Magic.

cheers,
Jess
A new workshop on the most important element of poetry-
'Rhythm and Meter in Poetry'
https://www.neopoet.com/workshop/rhythm-and-meter-poetry

author comment

Glad to see you're poetry fares better than mine, you just wrote this and already have a comment, I wrote one nearly two days ago and still have only one comment. I'm not sure why that is, but I'm certain it doesn't bode well for future posts of mine, if any!

Moses had patience, although waiting for your people to be freed from slavery is nothing to the anguish of unrequited poetry [grins].

Seriously, mate, it is true that the level and quality of critical feedback on Neopoet is suffering one of its periodic declines. I am as guilty as any but will do my best to remedy this. Got to go out now but will get back to critiquing tonight.

cheers,
Jess
A new workshop on the most important element of poetry-
'Rhythm and Meter in Poetry'
https://www.neopoet.com/workshop/rhythm-and-meter-poetry

author comment

enjoyed this immensely as a poetic wander..
the jaunt
story telling is today far from the seizure laden
big screen..of jolts to kick us from the leaden
stain of reality on its newsprint and television
drone..

the old science fiction i read in the little
wood side cabin near the cottage at a mates
comes to mind...the old transistor on its shelf
murmuring in the night...the shaded glow
of the bulb on the tube and frame bed..

i like how the poem transformes into that
hit from the routine
drawn into it dreamstatic sequence
the newer creative eclectic sounds i find
and visual vids are excellent..

this is a great poem..

thank you Elf

Mr Esker..

Sir Esker.
Have you seen that our old mate David, Iknownobox, is back?

cheers,
Jess
A new workshop on the most important element of poetry-
'Rhythm and Meter in Poetry'
https://www.neopoet.com/workshop/rhythm-and-meter-poetry

author comment

That photo machine what the hell did it do to you, all that sorting of religions and people sounds like the description of a painting I have seen some place, something to do with Dante.

We have been warned about flashing lights and their effect on the human brain lol, makes me wonder about flash drives, are they like a whist drive, lots of thing I use to worry about have been shelved now they have been filed under brain farts.
Take care of you and I loved the read and the comments.
Yours Ian.T

.
There are a million reasons to believe in yourself,
So find more reasons to believe in others..

We would be brain constipated without them.

cheers,
Jess
A new workshop on the most important element of poetry-
'Rhythm and Meter in Poetry'
https://www.neopoet.com/workshop/rhythm-and-meter-poetry

author comment

this poem gets wild and explosive every second, but one will start to believe you support atheism, hope you don't................ just curious , bu the read a fancy fact-file , digression from different enterprising talk is key if not the meaning is mislead

It is the most honest and courageous of all human philosophies.

cheers,
Jess
A new workshop on the most important element of poetry-
'Rhythm and Meter in Poetry'
https://www.neopoet.com/workshop/rhythm-and-meter-poetry

author comment

Early near primitive man would still be praying for epidemic victims. We would be at the mercy of superstition. Oppressed by our "gods". It took science to raise the life expectancy rate. To make life suitable for advancement. What has any religion ever done to advance society? Too many True Believers simply cannot accept that while atheist generally have no spiritual leaning we can still be awestruck by the very nature of our being. As in we are of the universe, and the universe is in us. Carl Sagan, and Neil deGrass Tyson are apt to say.

GADZOOKS
both are very similar..
we canadians travel abroad and take our canadian tire gas bar coupons
which looks like real money..complete with aged moustachioed gent who
looks like a count....hes actually a scotsman implying that canada tire
stores are...how to put it..cheap...er for the frugal minded soul....anyway
in southern climes one could pass this off for tip money...unless the wary
worker was aware....

machinery......yes i remember the old bum warmer retina burners
they had....made one hell of a racket when trying to spy and make
copies for corporate espionage or resumes when trying to escape
employment....those things took x rays too....and made a sound
that would terrify any god fearing individual....no wonder the superstitious
feared the camera with its flash and dark hooded operator stealing the
soul....and you could sit double for the double...well..take that..
everything is dainty...shipping costs.....

souls or no souls......atheism works
ive read books on people who survived much
especially those raised with no input or stimulation
they are not aware of the whole soul idea..
and eugenics which argue that at a certian genetic
level people dont require them..or have them..
maybe more like allowed to have them.
and animals have none according to some...
but seem to do very well and love is an emotion
that survives in many with no belief in a higher
power or god...

but if you are talking about science thinking
people...people who work service for others
and do no harm...
there are those whom exist that are briliant
and have no governing use for society as
we know its standard..rules..etc..

true animals brought in from the wild are very
acting..superstitious...
"I think..therefore I am"

we are just from the eighteen hundreds
equipment works well from that period
...the photoblasters of their day stil
blast..
atheists work in all trades or other
levels...

capabilities..
wait until we design artificial intelligence
which may arrive sooner then we want..
what then of the soul.
because if man builds it..
it will be us.....

love this site.....we can work on poem
work and philosophical tinkering
ha...i like the idea of cheap photocopied
poetry glue pasted to poles..buses..
worksite plywood..

the original pop-up...
thank you.

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