Alessandra Liverani (Wollongong, Australia)

Flash your pass at the sensor and it responds
With a blue light and two beeps, one short, one long
Drag open the door and step into a cold chamber
This is the world of the backup ranger

Humming and buzzing, droning and rumbling
These machines work amidst much grumbling
The normal procedure is to walk to the back
Pull out the first little tape, it’s called a DAT

Then put it away in its hard plastic case
And eject the next from its overnight place
By pressing a button for it to unload
It also must leave its transient abode

Then comes the time for the humungous whopper
Containing slots by the hundred inside its hopper
Slide open the door and will be laid bare
How many tapes it’s released from its snare

Encase them all in their hard plastic shells
And take them offsite for a well deserved spell
Until once again they must be placed in their drives
Thus is the rhythm of the backup tapes’ lives

(Sydney, Australia - 2007)