Laura Bandy: Tech Enters the Midwest

       The Blind Robot & Friendly Dragon, by Mary Hatch, 1987, oil on canvas, 28” x 36”

 

Tech Enters the Midwest

It slides through the high wires
lacing telephone poles that line
and order the corn fields, teleports

like a redshirt into alien homes,
floral sofas and dinosaur Curtis Mathes
consoles. It cooks in the screens. Inside

middle management and millennial mouths
tech speaks growth hacks, disruption, clouds.

There’s tech by Xbox, by blood thinner, by Android.
Tech by bits and bytes, mods and runs.

Tech comes to Titus in his blue room.
At twelve, tech hums past Thor posters,
past penguin Pillow Pals and Minecraft Steve.

Held fast by headphones and flickering images cast
from light through the window behind him, fires
burning from every home as evening comes.

_______________
Laura Bandy

 

Review by Julie Wenglinski
I love the color and imagery in this poem. I love “slides through the high wires” and “poles that . . . / . . . order the corn fields.” That has a Spielberg feel and also when Bandy mentions “floral sofas and dinosaur . . . / consoles.” She repurposes “bits and bytes” to mean little by little. I love the ancient name “Titus” paired with tech, and I love “his blue room” that is lit by the tech. The “penguin Pillow Pals and Minecraft Steve” make me think of Toy Story. There is so much specificity in this poem that it requires the reader to pay attention. I love the paralysis in the last stanza. This poem is a gift to every reader.

Scroll to Top