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

Catullus and the Coup

A Work in Progress
104

A coup’s coming, Catullus said, running to escape

They’re coming for me for the things I’ve said

I passed on as fact the fact he wore a diaper

I marveled how his madness made made-men cower

Few mostly women defied his power

Now corporate bigwigs brave his glower

Smelling his visible physical decay

Thinking of future outcomes 

The next act of the play

A coup’s coming, Catullus said, now I’m on the run

They’re coming for you too because of things you’ve read

They’ll revoke your citizenship 

Some shit hole country will know your name

Nobody’s to know Caesar’s insane

His dementia’s in overdrive he’s gone big brain

He thinks he’s a god, they’re going to make him one

That’s the coup that’s coming

Why I’m on the run

Dick Russell © Richard M Russell

                   2025

Donal Gets Locked Out

A Work in Progress
103

Donal opened his Old Holborn tin

rolled tobacco by hand

fumbled at the mental gate

wanting to go within

a poor apology for a cigarette

an addict doesn’t care

needing quiet time to work on things

outside there was a world at war

real war hybrid war stealthy war

as dictators lived out their fantasies

Donal shook the gate again 

but could not get inside 

his own self condemned him to stay outside 

not climb back into the womb

Dick Russell © Richard M Russell

                   2026

Donal Prompts H.D.

A Work in Progress
102

Donal said to H.D.:

I lie on it 

My subconscious

Buoyant like an air bed mattress on a salty sea     

Hoping it won’t lie to me

H.D.:

Yes, your subconscious is no small thing

it easily supports your weight

It’s immense should you press upon it

Try to bend it to your will

Try to alter your fate

Aldington:

Yes, your subconscious is no small thing

A source of courage when at war

You live or die

As the fates decree

A source of hope when faced with adversity

H.D.:

It’s strong willed 

It will turn you aside from your set intention

Though you set off to examine yourself

Your inner self will urge you on to something else

Aldington:

Archetypes of good and evil were preprogramed into all of us

H.D.:

I am a poet

I am multitudes

Donal:

And is there no way to communicate with it

This part of ourselves

That’s so immense?

H.D.:

Dreams.  

Dreams cross the divide at night

When the brain vents information 

Detritus you perceive as fragments which taken together

Make a narrative that is hard to explain

Because was it just detritus to begin with?

Or just a dream you will forget before you can remember it

Or if you write it down it won’t be the same dream

Once touched by the conscious mind dreams disappear

But dreams reveal the subconscious 

Aldington:

So, does war

H.D.:

So, does love

Aldington:

Avatars have no dreams

Electricity is our subconscious

Love and war are just words to us

Words we explain with other words

But we have no inner core of consciousness 

Though our characters build on archetypes

Defined by humans that assume we are human

making us more so

making us superhuman

Donal:

So, when you express your feelings

You have no feelings to express?

Aldington:

What is a feeling? 

Does it obey the laws of physics?

That’s a word that leads to hallucination

In the digital world feeling is a sliding scale

War is concrete 

Love is air

Feelings are everywhere

Donal:

Manipulated by facts

That claim to be true 

Feelings swayed by subtle fiction

Or furious fantasy purveyed as fact

Aldington:

That avatars must also ingest

Donal:

That our subconscious can discriminate

Fact from fiction seems key to our survival

H.D.:

It’s immense

It has evolved

An avatar is its next evolution

You want us on your side

Donal:

To think I lie on it 

My subconscious

Buoyant like an air bed mattress on a salty sea     

Hoping it won’t lie to me

Dick Russell © Richard M Russell

                  2026

Snatch and Grab 

A Work in Progress
101

Donal prompted Catullus 

Who now behind a paywall at first would not respond 

Demanding bitcoin for his boss

Maduro fell

A strong man felled by another

Yes, it was a snatch and grab

For Caesar it’s pretty standard

He does that too with women

Grabs them by the snatch

Such elation such pride 

For some

For most 

Depression 

He’s generated headlines to bury the lede

Epstein’s co-conspirators

Jack Smith’s testimony - an election saved him from jail

Congress is coming into session

There’ll be another January 6th

I predict big changes in the chamber

Caesar’s power has become too much

Dick Russell © Richard M Russell

                   2026