ANOTHER MANNER OF HARD DRIVE…
1st section
The years go by,
Decades go by,
Unstoppably,
Unerringly…
They wave us goodbye
Or we wave them goodbye…
2nd
Clocks may stop
And do stop,
Whether mechanical
Or battery ones.
But, time goes on,
Unerringly, pitilessly,
Not caring for anything
Or anybody…
3rd
Decades back, Norton Antivirus
Said funny things.
“Don’t worry if you can’t
Tell a hard disk from a slipp’d disk…”
“You thought a hard drive
Was a drive along a bumpy road ?...”
4th
Today we know more,
We know better.
We may laugh at the machines :
But they will have the last word…
Our obituaries will be written on them…
5th
I be on allpoetry.com
And mypoeticside.com :
Plenty of stuff post’d.
Read by others,
Comments received,
Comments made.
But one day the page will go silent…
Suddenly…
6th
Age be taking its toll :
Groaning limbs,
Falt’ring steps,
Keats lament’d
About his fears
Of ceasing to be…
The poor fellow died young,
Went too soon…
7th
The bus I took the other day,
‘Twas full,
Only standing room…
Ne’er knew standing was so hard…
The machine brak’d,
Swerv’d, rac’d…
I was thrown about,
I clung to some rail;
The others look’d elsewhere…
Was it the bus
Or was it my legs ?...
8th
Whichever ‘twas,
The result was the same.
A HARD drive…
A BUMPY road…
Hard drives have serv’d me faithfully :
More than sixty-eight books typ’d
And publish’d…
More coming up…
9th
‘Tis a tough world,
Unfeeling,
Pitiless…
Even towards the elderly…
But the job hath been done :
The writings only get better :
Mortals only speak
For a short time :
The written scrolls remain forever…
10th
In the Himalayas,
Grows the soma flower :
An infusion gives immortality,
They say…
So, the very name be immortal,
Like the poetry it produces…
------------------------------------------
John Keats (1795-1821) : “When I have fears that I may cease to be…”
-------------------------------------------
Soman Ragavan
30 August, 2025
Mauritius
--------------------------------------------