Berlin, 22 September 1916. <br />On 17 September one of our <br />submarines sank a fully <br />loaded enemy troop transport <br />in the Mediterranean. The <br />ship went down in 43 seconds. <br /> <br />This is how Death confronts Technology. <br />Can bravery contribute still to might? <br />The clock has stopped. The days have turned to night. <br />0 spare us, god of war, this agony! <br /> <br />That was a sacrifice to the machine <br />and not to you who hurtled from its hole. <br />Here stood an instrument without a soul – <br />your proud accomplice - with victorious mien. <br /> <br />There stands a mortar. He who built that gun <br />seeks shelter in a trench, a wretched coward. <br />While giants fall, by midgets overpowered, <br />the clockwork fights with time to stop its run. <br /> <br />Take heed, and lake it easy. Otherwise <br />you'll see a cripple sit behind a desk <br />and push a button with a grin grotesque – <br />and London disappears. Surprise, surprise! <br /> <br />The storm clouds gather with destructive power. <br />What was the time when all this came to pass? <br />The eye sees dimly in the poison gas - <br />but hark the striking of the zero hour. <br /> <br />With pranks like that to blow our world apart, <br />keep God that god from picking up the pieces <br />as Progress stalks with warhead and prosthesis, <br />stopwatch in hand, and glory in its heart.<br /><br />Karl Kraus<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/with-stopwatch-in-hand/
