A Short Leap (you would think for a mature audience)
Summer of 1966 I was
Just out of high school
Newspaper web press apprentice
For the San Francisco Chronicle
Working one night I overheard
Several journeymen
Talking about
If they could
Get up enough money
Get the bets up high enough
Buy him a couple of drinks
See if he really could do it
They wanted to talk
This other jouneyman into
Proving what
He'd been bragging about
Up until this point
It had only been a rumor
No one had seen him do it
No one believed it could be done
The proper amount of cash
Was quickly raised
Even guys from the third floor
Newsroom white shirts and ties got involved
They put in their share of money
Once the word got around
Posted their bets
I put up my two bucks
We gathered in the basement
Where the one-ton rolls
Of blank newsprint are hoisted
Like fat spindles
Spinning
At a maximum speed
Of thirty-thousand
Continuous copies an hour
When the audience had gathered
The lights in the basement were turned off
Only for a moment
So we could all see the electricity
[...] Read more
poem by Tom J. Mariani
Added by Poetry Lover
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