Thursday, February 19, 2009

The Digital Age

The digital age is a marvellous thing
It promises a lot -
More quality time with significant others
Looking at a screen,
Signing up to Facebook
To see holiday snaps.
Is this the quality to which we aspire
I think not.

The digital age is a marvellous thing
Less use of paper the claim.
Opening centres in regional towns
Accessing the 'net at last.
Negotiating budgets, plans, policies and more
For the bureaucratic beavers consuming copies galore.
Unfettered appetite sees our forests feverisly felled.
When will it stop?
Shame, shame, shame.

The digital age is a marvellous thing
Do all your business online -
Myriads of numbers controlling the process,
Passwords remembered each time.
Call centre assistance available 24/7,
Web support and tech help for the masses
Structures in place that never deliver -
Unlike that age-old tradition
Of drinking very fine wine.

17th February 2008
Kym Matthews

1 comment:

Adrian said...

Is is not interesting how we all jumped at the opportunities the digital age brought and yet, we complain about the disadvantages we encounter through its use?

These three verses point out our love hate relationship with the intelligent machines to which we have become such slaves.

Maybe we are beginning to rebel against our incarceration? I think Kym is and, is for us all with this poem. She has found a timely saviour in the grape. May we all enjoy it in the delight of its rescue from the prison of the age.

It is free verse with a sharp point of view telling us how little freedom we actually have with the computer