Notes About The Poem
6/30/2025 for A Child of Light Poetry Contest sponsored by Suzette Richards
Current War
A lightbulb conjures Edison
but shines on another,
relevant
in the war of currents, (1)
that another player sparked -
vastly intelligent.
It would be the world's fate
to have its current alternate,
and, too, Tesla spared the elephant. (2)
(1) In the "War of the Currents" in the late 1880s and early 1890s, surrounding the introduction of competing electric power transmission systems, Thomas Edison promoted Direct Current (DC), and Nikola Tesla promoted Alternating Current (AC), which is now the standard for power grids around the world.
(2) Per Wikipedia, "In popular culture, Topsy [the elephant] is often portrayed as being electrocuted in a public demonstration organized by Thomas Edison during the war of the currents to show the dangers of alternating current." However, it goes on to reveal a more complex (but just as horrible) truth.
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