The wives slept
While the men worked
Through the night
Each man at his desk
His face reflecting
The glow of a screen
The men worked
For the Corporation
–The sole employer
A living entity
Growing, consuming
And adapting
Operating, once with
Typewriters and forms
Folders and cabinets
‘Til the chief
Ordered the men
“Build a machine!”
One man created its mind
The paths into it
And the ways out
A second man wrote instructions
Shaped like poems
For the machine-mind to read
A third man built a translator
So the machine could talk
To other machines
Thus the Corporation’s organs
Became keyboards and screens
File and servers
And the men’s work
Became care
Of the machine
Which could only be done
At night
When they induced its sleep
And as the machine slept
The men worked
Through the night
Jim's Writing 