On Productivity
A Work in Progress
105
On average, Virgil wrote about three lines day
Making Aeneid book by book for his patron
Uninterrupted by the Internet’s plectron
A pen and papyrus did suffice to write on
Each book transcribed onto a scroll by hand
Good work for copyists in those ignorant times
While Virgil strolled his farm picking lemons and limes
Avoiding grappling with Roman rules of rhyme
Owing his productivity to a slave economy
Slaves did the work while he wrote to survive
Now editors are deaf to words that don’t jive
They should want proof an author of work is alive
Not a robot employed by an hyperscaler
Creating fiction from fact to make it spicier
Happily reversing a creeping glacier
To focus attention on unbuttoning a brassiere
Whatever can excite be flagged now trending
In a world depending on its digital slaves
To keep it distracted from the actions of knaves
Supplying pap for whatever masses crave
Were some counterfeits? those scrolls that were made
As some content today is invented bot spin
Did Virgil suffer identity theft Latin
Someone spinning epic tales stolen from his bin
Each book copied multiple times
For sale to Rome’s far-flung intelligentsia
In Alexandria even far Brittania
A tale of gods heroes desertion mania
His productivity was never an issue
He had enough time to become expert on bees
Did he write a primer on how to prune trees
While he imagined a story of how Rome came to be?
Dick Russell © Richard M Russell
2026
