Letter to an old PC: What I should have done twenty years ago
(Or, Das Re-boot)

We took a walk down old drive C:\
one cool October eve.
We spoke of ones and zeroes
as my hands caressed your keys.
We walked the path less travelled.
I leaned lose to your ear
and, all alone on a single track
I whispered softly, dir:/
I'd always loved your software,
basic, programmable.
I could feel it in my hardware
that we were compatible.
You held me off with, More, please wait,
and added, Please stand by.
I worried, then, searching your face
for just one Readme file.
Alas, it was too late, I feared;
the disk grew black and blacker,
as, weeping zeroes you confessed
you loved another hacker.
I held my rage as you retraced
that same DOS walk with me,
till, looking sadly at your face,
I typed in "Format C:"

David Waltner-Toews