One day
In Pensacola
A soda-pop factory fizzed.
And suddenly withered
A Palm Spring’s plastic greenery.
Employees were quitting at random
And when some were quizzed
Said they'd shamefully just discovered
That noisy and smelly machinery
Had neither the intricate mechanism
Nor the acute sensitivity
Nor the unheard-of facility
To function at 4-0 efficiency
Without overheating
Or needing replacement
Or oiling, refueling
For decades and more
As an almost forgotten tool called
The hand.