Safer?
My photos were safer in boxes
My words were secure in my books.
They say that the cloud’s the solution
For worry o’er fire and crooks.
But woe! I’ve forgotten my password.
My storage is now on the brink.
Marked safe from the physical hazards,
My stuff is a ten-letter link.
One day I’ll be logged out forever!
Who’ll keep all my files alive?
Will history I’ve kept simply vanish?
Not found in the digital sky?
So now, although it gets messy
(The truth of the matter is my
Boxes and boxes of photos
Are stacked up a couple yards high;
And I’ve cartons containing my notebooks,
And calendars lining the shelf)
My thoughts and my deeds are protected
By me, not a cyberspace elf.
Ode to Piggy Wee
—for a friend whose toe was amputated
You’ve served me well dear piggy wee,
And gone to worlds I don’t yet see.
I’m sorry that this had to be
But now you’re gone by Doc’s decree.
You did your duty without pomp,
(Tiptoe, boogie, step, and stomp.)
I didn’t see this coming on;
One day you’re here, the next you’re gone!
My flip flops will not look so swell
Because you do no longer dwell
Next to “had none” piggy. Well,
At least I have a tale to tell.
Some toes you win, some toes you lose
(It may not be quite what you’d choose)
But I for one won’t sing the blues
For Doc did not ban high heel shoes!
Gigi Ryan is a wife, mother, grandmother, and home educator. She lives in rural Tennessee.
Gigi, I share the concern for storing my life’s work on The Cloud via One Drive. In fact, I deleted a lot of material because it said on my email I was at my limit and had to pay for more storage. Fortunately, I did keep all my family pictures in plastic box containers. Your “Ode to Piggy Wiggy” is at the same time funny and sad. I did recognize the toe that had to go from your description.
Here’s what’s a sort of an independent research and home-schooling anthem, written when I thought the damage to my toes might be worse than it proved. By a series of mischances I’d worn shoes which were too tight when wading, and had blistered a couple of toes, which healed up with the loss of one toenail.
The scientist must lose his toes
As he pursues his art
And every time one of them goes
The loss breaks his heart.
The sadness is like that with which
His children go to school
and learn to sit in rows and twitch
As they are taught by fools.
Oh! bring your toes and children home
and spare them grief and grades,
They’ll frolic in the meadows with
The mystic Tardigrades.
14 September 2009: Canada: Quebec: Parc d’la Verandrye: Lac de la Vieille parking area. 46.78417°N 76.21377°W.