I once ordered a crystal radio
from my Johnson and Smith catalog
NO POWER SOURCE
is what it said
just the energy of the radio waves themselves
leaping off the sharpened spike
atop some clandestine tower
spreading out in spherical shells
stretched so thin by now there couldn't be
and yet there was
enough electromagnetic "stuff"
to agitate the antenna wire
enough to tickle the cats-whisker pin
which poked the germanium crystal
just so
and a highly wound spool
of baby's hair wire
would tune to a station at night
with a guy who made puns
and talked about nothing
through the plug in my ear
which trickle of sound
transfixed a boy's head
to his pillow
all night
me at 14.
