TIME AND MOTION STUDIES IN THE FACTORIES OF LIGHT

dream heads upon the chopping blocks
or delved into we manage in the day to day
to hide our tears in the deluge

may the rains sweep sorrow away
and we are the instruments of the GNP
the case studies

in the factories of light.
may we become proficient
they say and they say and they say

in doing what they have for us today
and we are measured incessantly.
somewhere there was a pastorale

where we lived, I or you
as in the fairy tales of our wits
making the fair trade of the one and only

cow for the magic beans
and freeing the captive harp by degrees
from the giant's clasp.

and this is still
not far beyond our grasp
if only we could leave could leave could leave

without being seen to
or marked down for it,
the factories of light.

the inhibitors of flight.



mary angela douglas 3 december 2016