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Thursday, 31 October 2013 08:09

The Uninvited Guest Featured

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post 67 picTechnology has taken over our lives and many of us long for a return to simpler times when less was being done by computers. 

This will never happen but it will not lessen the reverie we may indulge in occasionally. 

A recent bout of musing led me to this Halloween tinged ode.  

The Uninvited Guest

Once upon a slow practice day, while my thoughts were miles away,
Over past knowledge I pondered, expertise in forgotten skill –
Although I mused, mainly mocking, suddenly there came a squawking,
As if in some midway hocking, a hocking at my window sill,
“Tis only some bird”, I muttered, a squawking at my window sill –
A plaintive voice that gives a chill.

.

Interrupt my thoughts so sober, on this morn in bleak October,
Thoughts of dental talents I mulled, these skills that once set me apart –
Faculties that declared my gift, no longer prized, my mind did drift,
Acquired from books and mentors, these tools that once defined my art,
This guest, I reasoned, mocks my art,
Each squawk a stab to my somber heart.

 

Pull back the blind to view my guest; the meeting would remove the pest,
He gaped at me with iron will, and read my thoughts, it made me ill,
Ledger cards, and appointment books, his eyes did say with furtive looks,
 Paper to keep presses rolling, got to support the paper mill
Vile squawking at the paper mill,
And all this from my window sill.

 

Eyes of despair mocked film x-ray, dipped in tanks, was the only way
Then suspended on lines to dry, light boxes to see what you need,
White liveries light the long dead past, stained from the day’s earlier tasks,
The feathered guest tells me its gone, his eyes did speak and I must heed,
“I won’t let go”, I’ll not concede
 From the dark past I’ll not be freed.

 

Loudly he continued mocking, through covered ears I heard the squawking,
“The past is dead, digital now”, the message he darkly implored,
“All thoughts of analog away, It’s a new world, embrace today,”
“Never” I screamed at my window bleak, the new ways I indeed abhor,
From the sill a disdaining laugh, about the skills I so adore,
A single word the bird did speak, ‘twas the word “Nevermore”.

.

Read 10479 times Last modified on Thursday, 31 October 2013 09:51
Bill Hockett

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