06-14-2022, 07:32 AM
(06-14-2022, 04:43 AM)dukealien Wrote: Life in the Soft LaneA great one
Anyone can see from my soft hands
how rich and useless I’ve become of late: ….pink and useless? “Rich” is flat
palms without callouses, nails pink and smooth;
loose knuckles never barked in shop or fight. …. I like “loose knuckles”
I’ve even lost my writer’s thickening
along those fingers pencils used to press; … a nice little detail
this week I took a chunk out gardening–
it bled like fun: a farmer would have laughed.
But then a farmer wouldn’t understand
(at least, no farmer only decades past) ….. when farming was less mechanised, but it sounds like a rant
how merely getting old could bring in cash …. Beautiful
or typing, dreaming, all but mind at rest.
My useless life extends, I own enough
to buy my needs from men with hands still rough. ….. nice ending
Though the reality is that men with rough hands don’t make much anymore.
It’s the age of AI and automation
The mining industry already has automated trucks, and longwalls have long ago been remotely operated (in underground coal mining)