A little twisted poetry

This isn't exactly filk (as there's no music), but its in the same spirit and I'm sure many of us have experienced it first hand.

> "Modern version of Edgar Allen Poe's The Raven"
> Abort, Retry, Ignore?
>
> 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 bed sheets,
> still I sat there doing spreadsheets.
> Having reached the bottom line I took a floppy from the drawer,
> 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.
> But the silence was unbroken,
> and the stillness gave no token.
> "Save!" I said, "You cursed mother! Save my data from before!"
> One thing did the phosphors answer, only this and nothing more,
> Just, "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 "Abort, Retry, Ignore?"
> With 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 "Abort, Retry, Ignore?"
> I tried to catch the chips off guard,
> and pressed again, but twice as hard
> I pleaded with the cursed machine: I begged and cried and then I
> swore.
> Now in mighty desperation,
> trying random combinations,
> Still there came the incantation, just as senseless as before.
> Cursor blinking, angrily winking, blinking nonsense as before.
> Reading, "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, "Abort, Retry, Ignore?"
> To this day I do not know
> the place to which lost data go.
> What demonic nether world is wrought where lost data will be stored,
> Beyond the reach of mortal souls,
> beyond the ether, into black holes?
> But sure as there's C, Pascal, Lotus, Ashton-Tate and more,
> You will one day be left to wander, lost on some Plutonian shore,
> Pleading, "Abort, Retry, Ignore?">>
Received on 11/14/97