~CAROL COFFEE REPOSA~

LINES COMPOSED IN THE COMPUTER CLASSROOM

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We're studying discs tonight.
Like Adam made anew 
I wander through the cyber garden
Paradise of facts
Naming  files, opening and closing them 
Eating their strange fruit.

But soon I fall.
Seduced by thoughts of sleep
I drift
And suddenly
I'm in a wilderness of icons
Where the files can't go.

I stumble on the Internet
And open "Tennyson."
At first I am regaled
by subtle arguments
On the Laureate's long life
His friendships, labored love.

Then by accident
(Or is it serpents in the monitor?)
The loss of Hallam seems too much.
I hit something
And a hundred Dow-Jones quotes
Explode onto the screen.

It's too late
For fortunes to be made and lost.
I seize the mouse
And click "escape"
Thinking of the garden just outside
Redolent of pine, thick with silent stars.

© by Carol Coffee Reposa