Poetry

Nothing was working,
and nothing was right
I’d started work early,
and stayed up all night.

Bug after bug after
pernicious bug,
I felt a strong need
for a beer—or a hug.

Squinting and staring
at cells of Excel,
I faintly thought I
heard the tinkle of bells.

I looked, but as quick
as a startled young fawn,
the goblin flashed up to his vent
and was gone.

And where he had stood,
just as plain as could be,
a frisbee sat patiently
beckoning me.

“But no, I must finish,”
I thought to myself,
"This code won’t get wrote
on its own. And that elf

Causes nothing but havoc,
I’ve had just enough
of him always corrupting
and moving our stuff."

And so I returned
to my work just to find
not a single productive thought
ent’ring my mind.

“That Goblin!” I thought,
“His insidious ruse!
Just how can I rest when
There’s focus to lose?”

So I focused, and focused,
then focused on focus, and
crocus and locusts
and hocus and pocus and…

“Who brought the frisbee?”
Awakened, I turned,
as my lab-mates inspected
the frisbee I’d spurned.

“You wanna go down
to the Quad for a toss?”
I closed my computer
and shrugged, at a loss.

They passed me the frisbee
And there on the back
was a note…

‘Twas the last day of classes
And all through the lab
The students were sighing
And closing Chrome tabs.

They first checked the sink
Then the list, then the lights
And then trudged home in dark
Of a cold winter’s night.

Postures were slumped
Due to energy borrowed—
But pride in their work
offered hope for tomorrow.

The months worth of learning
All crammed in their heads
Caused dreams of exams
As they tossed in their beds.

But while they were sleeping
And storing away
The lessons from errors
Encountered that day

Back in the lab,
From an overhead vent
The Goblin of Knowledge
Began his descent.

He wore a bright coat
And had bells on his shoes
And his eyes sparkled greenish
And purplish hues.

With feathers of emerald
On elbows and cap,
He looked a mysterious,
Wonderful chap.

As soon as the tips
Of his toes touched the floor
He scurried about
Like he’d been there before.

He loosened some screws
And he unplugged some wires,
Corrupted some data
And hid all the pliers.

But as he released
A few bugs in the code
The lock in the hall
Flashed a bright green diode.

In trudged a student
Who froze in her tracks
And stared at the goblin
Who stared her right back.

They paused for a second.
She surveyed the scene.
“Just what have you done
To our research?!” She steamed.

“You villain! You monster!
How could you undo
These months of hard work
In a moment or two?”

His lip gave a tremble,
And eyelids grew wet.
“I… thought I could help you,”
He quietly said.

Honest regret
Turned her rage to despair,
And so she deflated
And sank to a chair.

Then while his green feathers
all faded to grey,
She mentally tallied
Her thesis delay.

“Nothing to do
But get started,” she said,
And rose from her chair
As he lifted his head,

“You think I could help you?”
He sheepishly asked.
“You’ve done quite enough
With your previous gaffe.”

She switched on the lights
And the old coffee-pot
And she said,
“For the Goblin of Knowledge I thought

You’d be leaving us insights
And not such a mess.”
His crest sadly drooped
And he said, “I confess,

I try to be useful,
I try to leave clues.
I’m never quite certain
I actually do.”

And so he began
To climb up to his vent
And one of his bells
Jangled loose as he went.

And as the bright bauble
Bounced down to the floor
The student saw something
She hadn’t before.

There in the data,
On fixing the flaw,
The trend she’d been missing
She finally saw.

She turned to the goblin
To share her delight
Then sank in dismay—
He was nowhere in sight.

She finished her work
And she packed up to go,
And she started to think
She’d imagined her foe.

She frowned as she thought
Her trend fancied as well…
Then smiled as she noticed:
A small silver bell.

Learning the meaning of words
Like learning the names of the birds.
I see a robin for the first time on my

thirtieth try.

Voltage was a myst’ry once,
As now we think of thought;
Both are found in minds that try
To overcome their lot.

Oh, we grasped electrons… but
Their storage took much longer:
Rapid distribution made the
Balance sheet look stronger.

Fuelled by economic forces
Favouring its spread,
‘Lectric current pushed the dark
From ev’ry meager shed.

Liesure too, we learned to wield,
But walled as soon as found;
Scattered late the golden crumbs,
Too few to go around.

Then we etched a shadow into
conscience and to stone;
Learned how badly we may err
In making power known.

Terrified to try again
These histories horrific,
Tow’ring mushrooms cloud our thoughts
With fantasies prolific.

Harness pow’r of knowledge,
And you wield a greater force
Than a thousand screaming warheads—
Trepidaciously, of course.

In haste, we fumble pen and sword,
But Cold War policies
Neglect that neither pen nor sword
Bind curiosity.

Vain attempts to build a cell
Are worse than all for naught:
Walls like those ’round liesure
Are more dangerous ’round thought.

Structure the Economy
For knowledge distribution;
Forge a future not of fear,
But moral restitution.

What is the boy-el-ing point of butter?
What of the boiling of bread?
What of the myriad thoughts I can’t utter
A-roiling around in my head?

Kisses warm a
Tremb’ling bliss:
Felicity felicitous!

I wonder what life is about?
I have no belief—only doubt.
I guess I just try.
I wonder if I
Fly higher with doubt than without?

Interesting sentences are partially true.