A Brick Noir Mystery

The fog rolled in like a concrete truck

With old ideas, just my luck.

The sultry blonde wasn’t a fraud

She was clearly just a broad.

Abroad there seemed more innovation

But precious little in this nation.

So I asked her as she hit on me

“Why’s innovation dead in masonry?”

She paused and told me “tuck point and blow

Your naiveté out and show

The way our industry works with bricks

We don’t like new-fangled tricks.”

There’s tort law, and there’s building code

Academics, researchers, designers showed.

“Leave twenty bucks on the boudoir

And I’ll help you solve this mystery noir”.

Masonry Innovation was clearly dead

And it was stuck in my head

To figure out why history stopped

And this clichéd mystery quickly flopped

Against inertia of status quo

It was on me to cleverly show

How innovation wasn’t dead:

There’s a better way to build instead.

Make a roof, a dome with block

Triangles that interlock.

A better mousetrap must be shown

To be better than what is known.

A better brick will solve this case

Better buildings will save some face

Of innovation in a conservative

Industry with much to give.

New ideas on solid footing

The proof of it is in the putting

One better brick atop the other

Mystery solved, believe it brother.