This place existed up to about 1950. It was old then. It was a blacksmith shop in Genesee, Idaho. It belonged to Gus Fickens.

TIME MACHINE

Up at dawn the fire to stoke.
The forge is lying deep in slumber.
Needs coke or coal to feed its hunger.
Feed the sleeping dragon's throat.

Full of motion. Full of wonder.
Hark back to the eighteen-nineties.
Flat belts run on iron pulleys.
Sights for children's eyes to ponder.

See and hear the whirling wheels
Hear the metal splices tapping.
Hear the leather belts a flapping.
Age of iron meets age of steel.

High above, tight to the ceiling,
Pillow blocks support the lineshaft,
To each tool imparting motion,
With a belt to each descending.

Hear the belt-slaps beat in rag-time
Rhythms from Scott Joplin's songs.
Helter-skelter ever shifting,
And the rhythm trumps the rhyme.

Twilight comes, long day is waning.
Machines are slowing with a sigh.
Close the doors and bank the fire.
Let sleeping dragons lie.
D. Wahl


Ray was great at finding strange things in ordinary settings: If you like this, check "Ray Remembered". If you would like another dragon, I have one waiting in the cold of a winter morning. Let me know, and I will post it too.