All Of You On The Good Earth Poem by Ernest Hilbert

For Henry Wessells

Even sci-fi gurus sometimes stumble.
Some small, seemingly obvious details
Fail to fit into farsighted novels.
Robots built to be human still fumble
With decks of punch cards for brains. Other tales
Use cassette tapes to achieve time travel.
Clerks bang on typewriters beyond the last star.
Beehives and bellbottoms always stay in style.
The milkman still makes rounds, but he's a clone.
A hero, fleeing in a hover car,
Slowly spins away on a rotary dial
To activate the 3-D videophone.
A lone man emerges from a structure.
He keys a code, and turns from the locked door.