Abort, Retry, Ignore
(Nevermore)

Once upon a midnight dreary,while i pondered weak and weary,
fingers cramped and vision bleary,
systems manuals piled high and wasted paper on the floor,
Longing for the warmth of bedsheets,
still i sat there, doing spreadsheets:
Having reached the bottom line,
i took a floppy from the drawer.
Typing with a steady hand, I then invoked the SAVE command
but got instead a reprimand: it read "Abort, Retry, Ignore".

"What is this?" i barely muttered, "what is this message you have uttered,
Uttered as my floppy fluttered, fluttered locked inside your door?"
But there came no soothing voices helping me among these choices,
with these unfamiliar choices, just the cursor's either/or
just the cursor blinking, blinking for my choice of either/or
from "Abort, Retry, Ignore."

With my fingers pale and trembling,
slowly toward the keyboard bending,
lomging for a happy ending, hoping all would be restored,
praying for some guarantee
finally i pressed a key--
But on the screen what did i see?
Again: "Abort, Retry, Ignore"

I tried to catch the chips off guard
i pressed again, but twice as hard.
Luck was just not in the cards,
i saw what i had seen before.
Now i typed in desperation,
trying random combinations.
Still there came the incantation-
Choose: "abort, Retry, Ignore.

There i sat, distraught, exhausted, by my own machine accosted;
Getting up, i turned away and paced across the office floor.
And then i saw an awful sight,
a bold and blinding flash of light,
A lightning bolt that cut the night and shook me to my very core.
The PC screen collapsed and died,
"oh No--my database", I cried.
I thought i heard a voice reply,
"you'll see your data--Nevermore!"