Abort, Retry, Ignore

To the poem The Raven, by Edgar Allen Poe

Once upon a midnight dreary, fingers cramped and vision bleary,
System manuals block the door, wasted paper on the floor,
Longing for the warmth of bed sheets, still I sat there doing spreadsheets.
Having reached the bottom line I took a floppy from the drawer
I then invoked the SAVE command and waited for the disk to store,
Only this and nothing more

Deep into the morning peering, long I sat there wond’ring, fearing,
Doubting, while the disk kept churning, turning yet to churn some more.
But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave to token.
"Save!" I said, "You cursed bore! Save my data from before!"
One thing did the Monster answer, only this and nothing more,
Just, "Abort, Retry, Ignore?"

Was this some weird illusion, some maniacal intrusion?
These were choice undesired, some I’d never faced before.
Carefully I weighed the choices as the disk made impish noises.
The cursor flashed, insistent, waiting, baiting me to type some more.
From, "Abort, Retry, Ignore?"

With fingers pale and trembling, slowly toward the keyboard bending,
Longing for a happy ending, hoping naught would still be pending.
Praying for some guarantee, timidly, I pressed a key.
But on the screen there still persisted words appearing as before.
Ghastly grim they blinked and taunted, haunted, as my patience wore,
Saying "Abort, Retry, Ignore?"

I tried to catch the chips off guard, and pressed again, but twice as hard.
I pleaded with that cursed machine: I begged and cried and then I swore.
Now in mighty desperation, why not try a combination,
Still there came the incantation, just as senseless, as before…
Cursor blinking, madly winking, blinking nonsense more and more.
Reading, "Abort, Retry, Ignore?"

There I say, distraught, exhausted, by my own machine accosted.
Getting up I turned away and paced across the office floor.
Just then I saw a dreadful sight: a lightning bolt cut through the night.
A gasp of horror overtook me, shook me to my very core.
The lightning zapped my prior data, lost and gone forevermore.
Not even, "Abort, Retry, Ignore?"

I bet that no one ever knows, the place to where lost data goes.
What demonic nether world exists where all this data finally rests,
Beyond the reach of mortal souls, beyond the stars, to blackened holes?
But as sure as there’s a Billy Gates, an Ashton-Tate, and more,
Soon we will wander far away, to some remote Plutonian shore,
As you plead and beg, and then implore, your answer is forevermore,
Your choices have not changed old boy, they are "Abort, Retry, Ignore?"

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