WHAT WOULD MARSHALL McLUHAN (SPOT THE METAPHOR) "SAY"

just a line

before I rush off

hit the traffic (courtesy

of a German luxury

car manufacturer whom

I would name unashamedly if only

they would steer

some of their

profit lucre my way)

and then campus awaits

an office desk covered with

stuff to

externally examine

and administrative bugbears

that I just

have to sort out

in the last days of my tenure

(next year

teaching, research and

some of this creative

word doodling

alone

beckons)

and I look at my life

not enough time left to

order, restructure, so

must place

all my faith in

creative chaos, ask

what would

Socrates do, what would

Nietzsche write, what

would that great guru of

the media

aphorism, Marshall McCluhan

say

as I blow hot and cool-cold

between hard gritty print and

this more nebulous, perhaps

infinite, spider-silk

hypertext, labyrinth

of new media