(Written in 1996 while working as an applied scientist in the corporate R&D laboratory of a large corporation during a period of large-scale layoffs all around.)
In a mansion, having many a room,
where a toddler was in full bloom,
There was one with a lovely view,
envied by quite a few.
Beside the toddler’s walnut crib
On a table was a new diaper pile.
Ready to collect the toddler’s drib,
And to make him once again to smile.
On the other side, away from sight,
There was kept a plastic pail.
It was used as a dumping site,
Where the infant’s used diaper stayed
The new diapers, fresh with fragrance,
scornfully chided their used siblings.
“Shame on you, you useless stinking grunts.
See us? We are the chosen few. We’re darlings.”
From the stinking pail came the derisive voice.
“Think like that, you wretched, ill-bred surly slime!
We are ‘used,’ we agree; at our pitiful state, don’t you rejoice!
You might soon be one of us. It’s only a simple matter of time.”
When I wrote this in 1996, I was embarrassed to send this for review because I felt that the reviewer would find my metaphor clumsy and even distasteful. But I thought it was contextually entirely appropriate because the college-educated in the US at that time were disdainful of people raising their families engaged in repetitive work on production lines, and I saw the lives of people turned upside down in an irreversibly changing global economy.
Now, with AI products available to evaluate all kinds of texts, I submitted this verse for review on many metrics. I was pleasantly surprised by what I got in the evaluation.
Evaluation of this poem by one of the OnLine AI-created reviewers:
The opening:
The first stanza deliberately evokes comfort and privilege:
In a mansion…
There was one with a lovely view…
The setting is almost idyllic, making the harsh dialogue that follows more striking. The “mansion” also functions metaphorically as a prosperous corporation: many rooms, but only one is the focus of attention.
The central metaphor:
The brilliance of the metaphor is that the distinction between the two groups of diapers is not one of quality but of stage in the life cycle.
The “new” diapers mistake temporariness for superiority.
The “used” diapers understand that the difference is simply one of chronology.
That is precisely how many corporate careers unfold.
The dialogue:
The poem succeeds because it lets the objects speak.
The new diapers’ voice is arrogant:
“We are the chosen few. We’re darlings.”
The used diapers’ reply is neither pleading nor resentful. It is almost philosophical.
“You might soon be one of us.”
That composure makes the closing lines more powerful than an angry rebuttal would have been.
The ending:
The final sentence,
It’s only a simple matter of time.
is the poem’s most memorable line.
It transforms the poem from satire into meditation.
Readers leave thinking not about diapers but about themselves.
I was pleasantly surprised with the modern tools at our disposal. Of course, these modern tools are value-neutral — much like a pathologist’s flat observations on the specimen under investigation — and hence you need to be careful to tailor this to your targeted audience. Obviously, one size will NEVER fit all. And imageries are always contextural to your target audience’s cultural, religious and social background. ∎