Have you ever seen me? NaPoWriMo Day 17

NaPoWriMo Day17 : Today the challenge is to write a poem that features forgotten technology. Maybe it’s a VCR, or a rotary phone. A cassette player or even a radio.

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Have you ever seen me?

 

I hadn’t imagined that I would ever have greys

Pride, vanity, whatever you may call it now

The ultimate writing machine- then they called me

How could writers fathom life without me?

 

 

With an array of keys that danced majestically,

At the touch of human fingers

I would shape characters beautifully on paper

With just ribbon and ink

 

 

“What a marvel of technology,

A door to literary opportunities”

Remarked Mark Twain with a sense of joy,

The first author who submitted a typed manuscript

 

 

Novels, poems, documents and biographies

I even had an exceptional place in offices

“Indispensable!” I was soon labeled

As no human could match my style and speed

 

 

“Oh how illegible and cryptic! Why can’t you get your work keyed?”

So, I was quite celebrated you see, even more than a celebrity

Click-clack, click-clack, relentlessly my keys would tap

With every move from right to left, my pride surged an extra mile

 

 

I had a fanatic lover too;

Rupert T. Gold, he called himself

And I’m amazed to quote the guy had the largest assortment in existence—

At least 71! Yes you heard me right- 71 (Now is that not supposed to coddle me!)

 

 

With love growing leaps and bounds

My life was far from reality, but not too long

Technology snapped at me; computers became vitality

And gradually I became history- an obsolete technology

 

 

I guess that’s how the cycle of life revolves

We all age, we wither, we phase

Just as me- a typewriter, once a revolutionary invention

That now stands forlorn in a museum

 

                                                                        ©Vandana Bhasin

                                                                                    17.04.2020