Once upon a midnight dreary

Once upon a midnight dreary,
Fingers cramped and vision bleary,
System manuals piled high,
and wasted paper on the floor,
Longing for the warmth of bedsheets,
Still I sat there, doing spreadsheets,
Having reached the bottom line,
I took a floppy from the drawer.
Typing with a steady hand,
I then invoked the SAVE command,
And waited for the disk to store,
Only this and nothing more.

Deep into the monitor peering,
Long I sat there wond'ring, fearing,
Doubting, while the disk kept churning,
Turning yet to churn some more.
"Save!" I said, "You cursed mother!
Save my data from before!"
One thing did the phosphorous answer,
Only this and nothing more,
Just "Choose Abort, Retry, Ignore?"

Was this some occult illusion?
Some maniacal intrusion?
These were choices undesired,
ones I'd never faced before.
Carefully, I weighed the choices,
As the disk made impish noises,
The cursor flashed, insistent, waiting,
Baiting me to type some more,
Clearly I must press a key,
Choosing one and nothing more,
From "Choose Abort, Retry, Ignore?"

With my fingers pale and trembling
Slowly toward the keyboard bending,
Longing for a happy ending,
Hoping all would be restored,
Praying for some guarantee,
Timidly I pressed a key,
But on the screen there still persisted,
Words appearing as before,
Ghastly, grim, they blinked and taunted,
Haunted, as my patience wore,
Saying "Choose Abort, Retry, Ignore?"

I tried to catch the chips off-guard.
I pressed again, but twice as hard
I pleaded with the cursed machine.
I begged and cried and then I swore.

Now in desperation, trying random combinations,
Still there came the incantation,
Just as senseless as before.
Cursor blinking, angrily winking,
Blinking nonsense as before.
Reading "Choose Abort, Retry, Ignore?"

There I sat distraught, exhausted,
By my own machine accosted,
Getting up I turned away
And paced across the office floor.

And then I saw a dreadful sight;
A lightning bolt cut through the night,
A gasp of horror overtook me,
Shook me to my very core,
The lightning zapped my previous data,
Lost and gone forevermore.
Not even "Choose Abort, Retry, Ignore?"

To this day I do not know
The place to which lost data goes,
What demonic nether world is wrought
Where data will be stored,
Beyond the reach of mortal souls,
Beyond the ether into black holes,
But sure as there's C, Pascal, and more,
You will one day be left to wander,
Lost on some Plutonian shore,
To "Choose Abort, Retry, Ignore?"

- Unknown

If We Only Understood

Could we draw aside the curtains
That surround each other's lives,
See the naked heart and spirit,
Know what spur the action gives…
Often we would find it better
Purer that we judge we would;
We would love each other better
If we only understood.

Could we judge all deeds by motives,
See the good and bad within,
Often we would love the sinner
All the while we loathe the sin.
Could we know the powers working
To overthrow integrity,
We would judge each other's errors
With more patient charity.

If we knew the cares and trials,
Knew the efforts all in vain,
And the bitter disappointments
Understood the loss and gain
Would the grim external roughness
Seem, I wonder just the same?
Would we help where we now hinder?
Would we pity where we blame?

Ah, we judge each other harshly,
Knowing not life's hidden force;
Knowing not the fount of action
Is less turbid at it's source.
Seeing not amid the evil
All the golden grains of good,
Oh, we'd love each other better
If we only understood.

- "Poems of Dawn" compiled by C. T. Russell (1912)