 
                            NEVERMORE
                        By Author Unknown

 Once upon a midnight dreary, fingers cramped and vision bleary,
    System 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."

     Was this some occult illusion? Some maniacal intrusion?
   These were choices Solomon himself had never faced before.
                Carefully, I weighed my options.
             These three seemed to be the top ones.
                 Clearly, I must now adopt one:
                  Choose Abort, Retry, Ignore.

               With my fingers pale and trembling,
               Slowly toward the keyboard bending,
    Longing 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 had cut the night and shook me to my very core.
                I saw the screen collapse and die
                 "Oh no -- my database", I cried
                I thought I heard a voice reply,
                "You'll see your data Nevermore."
                                 
                    To this day I do not know
                The place to which lost data goes
    I bet it goes to heaven where the angels have it stored.
                  But as for productivity, well
              I fear that it goes straight to hell
               And that's the tale I have to tell
               Your choice: Abort, Retry, Ignore.

