Edison, Tesla, Brown

Pray you never see me
coming toward you with my baggage
of wrong mistakes

not like Edison’s correct mistakes
that got him ever closer 
to the lightbulb

nor like Tesla’s right mistakes
that weren’t mistakes at all
but quashed revolutions

Like them I pulse with invention
Unlike them
I never patent anything

because I make the wrong mistakes
inasmuch as none are original enough
to sustain hope on the way to success

You will never read about me
in a book of genius
(except perhaps in a chapter

called “Cautionary Tales”)
You will never see me in a documentary
(perhaps instead a reality show

called “Really Missed
The Clue Boat Here”)
You will never see me

again 
unless I screw this up 
too