How I loved it at first
By Marge Piercy
In the beginning back in the early
eighties, PC’s made life easier.
I could move words around in poems
with my fast fingers. I could search
history, data, biographies, weather.
My dictionary, weather radio, my
desk encyclopedia collected dust.
I could communicate with friends
in London, Israel, the West Coast
without worrying about the time.
Anything that went wrong, I fixed.
I joined Boston Computer Society.
Now my computer goes haywire
often and I have to hire a techie.
There are layers and layers in each
program I never use but that
interfere. It’s hard to find how-tos
for the simple things I have to do.
How many days a week I curse it.
I depend on it like a bad husband.
Every so often it destroys files.
Goes on a rampage. Constant
uploads slow me down, change
everything I could formerly locate.
Now my computer makes things harder
and all my work and social life
is on it, vulnerable. Was cuneiform
actually so clumsy after all?
Copyright © 2021 by Marge Piercy.