Poem- Another manner of hard drive...

ANOTHER MANNER OF HARD DRIVE…

1^st section

The years go by,

Decades go by,

Unstoppably,

Unerringly…

They wave us goodbye

Or we wave them goodbye…

2^nd

Clocks may stop

And do stop,

Whether mechanical

Or battery ones.

But, time goes on,

Unerringly, pitilessly,

Not caring for anything

Or anybody…

3^rd

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 ?...”

4^th

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…

5^th

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…

6^th

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…

7^th

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 ?...

8^th

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…

9^th

‘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…

10^th

In the Himalayas,

Grows the soma flower :

An infusion gives immortality,

They say…

So, the very name be immortal,

Like the poetry it produces…

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John Keats (1795-1821) : “When I have fears that I may cease to be…”

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Soman Ragavan

30 August, 2025

Mauritius

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