The Invention

All of Volta's snakes alive,
twisting inside their skins
and rising from the barrel.
Don't be afraid.
Lucifer is unemployed
and Edison, the god,
lit the way
to the place of dawn's execution.
Marconi, who feared the snakes,
signed the warrant.
Baird died on TV
before the first commercial.
Here, beneath the plasterer's swirls
I await the striking adders and asps.

See you in the movies.