The Innisfree Poetry Journal www.innisfreepoetry.org by Dan Campion
US Patent 6,469, “Buoying Vessels Over Shoals”
Just out of reach is where inventions wait for most of us. Our sixteenth president was holder of a patent, but its fate was swiftly to be judged irrelevant. A sort of Mae West for a riverboat in trouble, the device did not take off. Most inspirations are of lesser note even than his. They haven’t heft enough. Or they are perfect answers but we fail to pose the proper questions. Tinkerers have met a need sometimes. But none avail except in gross material affairs. It wasn’t thwarted plans to tame a shoal that rendered Lincoln inconsolable. Copyright 2006-2012 by Cook Communication |