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Writer's pictureStephanie Daich

 AN ODE TO THE INVENTOR -Poetry by guest author John Grey





My neighbor thought of himself

as an inventor.

That was why he never held on to a job.

He worked on the machine

he figured would make his fortune

for two years.

He told me what it did,

at least. What was it supposed to do?

Something about pipes and swivel bolts,

beckets, and cotter pins.

It made no sense to me.


He complained about the banks

that wouldn't lend him money

and the wife who left him,

"Because the woman had no vision."

When it was finally ready,

he took it from factory to factory.

At first, it was his gift to the world.

At the end, just a child

in need of a good home.

It ended up back in his garage

for, as he put it,

"A little tweaking."


He tweaked for ten years or more.

I'd often see him

in his backyard,

grass uncut,

garden overgrown,

but still fiddling with his masterpiece.

But he never gave up on himself.

Perseverance was his greatest invention.





_________________________________________________________________

An Ode to the Inventor

by John Grey



John Grey is an Australian poet and US resident who recently published in New World Writing, North Dakota Quarterly, and Lost Pilots. The latest books, ”Between Two Fires”, “Covert”, and  “Memory Outside the Head”, are available through Amazon. Work is upcoming in California Quarterly, Seventh Quarry, La Presa, and Doubly Mad.








 

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