Ode To A Computer Poem by Sidi Mahtrow

There it sits glaring back
As if on a mindless tack
Doing its own bidding
When it's moved to responding.

Mostly it sleeps
When no motion demands its keep
Then when awakened from its silent keeping
There is no way to recover what it's been thinking.

No keys or mouse movement can recover
Whatever was in some program or other.
So one has to capitulate
Unless inclined to wait.

Perhaps at some point in time
The electrons will fall in line
And with a flash in a perfect storm
Then in the beast a life anew is born.

So do you sit silently and wait
For that appointed transistor gate
That permits the electrons to flow
Then, Oh so slow.

Abandon all hope
All that enter
Here is home for saint and sinner
Where patience is not a virtue
As the computer commands what is due.

Maybe a lost password will be required
To pass into the never world so rarified
Where Bill Gates and his crowd
Figure what will be allowed.

You have violated some principle
That to them seems so simple
But to the ordinary soul
There is no way forward to go.

Perhaps a new computer is the answer
But before you leap consider if this one you can romancer
One more time try to get it to do your bidding
Before to the curbside its committing.

Turn it off and let it rest
Then if you are by the god's blessed,
You'll hear the notes of music, so rare
Then be greeted with a screen so fair.

Just enter the magic password and you can start
To enter the kingdom of subatomic parts
Alas, either you have forgotten
Or perhaps the computer's logic is rotten.

And it shakes its head to say
Try another one to go this way.
In desperation you call
A serviceman who knows it all.

Sad it is to learn that your warrantee
Has expired and service is no longer free.
Gotcha comes to mind
As credit card numbers are read over the line.

Telling this foreign sounding voice
What happened when you tried to gain a choice
Is an experience not for the weak of heart
As he (or she) tries to take your problem apart.

It does appear
Is the conclusion you are wont to hear,
But it can be resolved says the voice
Hold down the alt key and rejoice
For your computer will start at once
(At least it happened to another dunce.)

Perhaps it's time for you to consider
Buying another
Computer that has anew
Problems and programs, not few
May solve the emergency you face
(Sorry, it's better to give up in disgrace.)

Now as you sit starring at the blank screen
Through you mind courses thoughts, Oh so mean.
Perhaps the computer could be placed
In Gate's dark personal place.

So to the Apple store you go
Credit card in hand to shell out lots of dough.
There you are amazed to find
Others faced with the problems of your kind.

Homeward you go with the promise
That this will give you eternal bliss.
Plug it in and the bells and whistles sound
(How do you turn off or turn it down?)

All that data which you had so thoughtfully backed up on an external drive
Is there for you the make your computer come alive.
It works and now you find
That a new learning curve will stretch your mind.

The promise of compatibility
Seems to be a stretch of reality
For the Bill Gates crew
Wants not to help you.

Nevertheless as you progress
Although much slower than the rest,
You come to realize that you could have written
All this faster in pencil or pen.