Thank You Archimedes

 

You built the first Elevator,

In Rome, even B.C.,
236.

Burton and Homer, how I wish I had ridden
Your Ascending Room,
Soaring-
Into soiled London skys!
Too early for me, 1823.

Kudos, Elisha Otis,
With your knurled rollers,
Saving us from snapping cables
And gravity, from 1852

To future rides.
You, too, Alexander Miles of Duluth,
For  Safety Doors born 1887
That shield us from the shaft.

No one thinks of these Men,
Who saved us from the stairs.
Once boxed, we make ourselves small, Pretending aloneness,
Enrapt in electric numbers.

Without them,
Who would know Up from Down,
North from South,
Going where we want,
Or don't.

Life changes
With the push of the wrong button,
The fat finger of a Stranger
Hijacking our journey,
Stranding us,
At floors never seen before.