Efficiency Lesson

Allen Swart



Efficiency Lesson

The first bird drops like a bad thought.
The second folds mid-argument.
I stay on the wire, the only punctuation left in the sentence.

Humans love efficiency.

One stone, two wings ruined.
I learn math quickly—
the sky is wide,
people throw with purpose.

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©2026 Christopher Reilley 

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Comments

  1. This is excellent. I especially love "the only punctuation left in the sentence." I can see it there, on the wire. Excellent.

    De

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  2. Chris, I can't help but imagine you wrote this with a smile on your face. I also think of poets as stone throwers.

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  3. you put so much into these few lines - had this reader contemplating - one stone, two birds, love the similes

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  4. Fine work! Sadly, the sky gets narrower and the stones multiply daily, eh?

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  5. Ewww! And also *shriek!* And yes, point well taken.

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  6. Haha! Excellent write Chris. Damn humans!

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  7. Brilliant you managed to pack a heavy amount of existential dread and cynical observation into just a few lines🙌

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  8. I love the simile ‘the first bird drops like a bad thought’, Chris, and the line ‘I stay on the wire, the only punctuation left in the sentence’.

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  9. Thank God, the sky is wide! Yet what does the horizon hold in the face of efficiency.

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  10. So much in a few lines. One to think about.

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  11. Efficient but heartless! Great poem, Chris!

    Yvette M Calleiro :-)

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  12. "the first bird drops like a bad thought"
    "I stay on the wire, the only punctuation left in the sentence."

    Some wonderful lines in this, Chris!

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