Joseph Kreydt

Tag: work

  • Survival of the Flittest

    A handwritten poem titled 'Survival of the Fittest' on a notebook page, discussing the relationship between machines and nature, featuring themes of power and beauty.
    Driving to work in a machine —
    (For a machine) that gives me power,
    And in other ways, takes my power;
    A machine tuned and perfected
    Over a hundred years;
    A machine upon which
    Cultures have fallen
    And cultures have formed —
    A red cardinal, tiny and fragile,
    Darted across the road
    In front of the machine
    That drives me.
    Panic pulsed through my heart.
    “No! I cannot, atop this other grief,
    Mourn the death of such beauty,
    Such life, to the machine.”
    All in a wingbeat
    With a twisting flit,
    Violent volitation,
    And agile ascension,
    The organism evaded the machine,
    And I held tight to some far off dream.

  • Crow on a Traffic Cone

    This animal, as smart as a machine, watches the whole world with a few slight twists of its neck, yet never loses sight of the carrion.

    It perches atop a nicked, scuffed, bright orange traffic cone; another of man’s inventions that wail out over all the rest of the natural world.

    The crow doesn’t care. But I do. Why do we insist on maximums? Why are we so loud? And where is the place untouched by hype? I want to go there.

    I am not at home here, among man’s inventions and machinations. I am at home where nature is observed, not trampled. I am at home among lovers, not CEOs. I am at home where freedom reigns, not frictionless transactions.

    Carrion belongs to scavengers. I carry on.