John Donne, The Computation

[Alan Sondheim]

John Donne, The Computation

For the first twenty years, since yesterday
*/ I had my WinCE but yet I could not play - /*
  I scarce believed, thou couldst be gone away,
  */ And yet the Hat of Red wormed in the fray. /*
For forty more, I fed on favours past,
*/ My linux box I knew was always fast - /*
  And forty on hopes, that thou wouldst, they might last.
  */ But Amiga left bereft and my hopes cast /*
Tears drowned one hundred, and sighs blew out two,
*/ And lost ran towards BSD, the kernel new. /*
  A thousand I did neither think, nor do
  */ Of Unix flavours, those I most did rue - /*
  Or not divide, all being one thought of you;
  */ Including Darwin riding hard and true - /*
  Or in a thousand more, forgot that too.
  */ Gave up to WinXP the universal glue. /*
Yet call not this long life; but think that I
*/ Resolve to run OS in universal sky - /*
Am, by being dead, immortal; can ghosts die?
*/ Until the dead return, and on machines rely. /*

_