Internet History
Where what is now
The washroom and mop sink
There was the very first
Computer room that actually
Had internet for anyone an
Undiscovered hinterland for
The slender sloping boy and the
Girl from chemistry class
With the pins and badges
That, no, weren’t hip then
Just little flags on the
Battleship of sadness
A weird thing was that
As they peered into their
Portals to the beyond and
A cousin in Portland
Typing their phone calls
And letters into the light
They laughed out loud
At the Funny Ha Ha
Even though it was also
Totally Funny Strange
Now the University does
Not pay for your device
You are supposed to laugh
On your own account
In the Renaissance
When books were first
Available for normal men
Not monks or kings
No one quite knew yet
How to read silently
It took a long time to
Learn not to read aloud*
To think the words
Inside your own head
Somewhere in the late
1990s it must have been
A bunch of kids had to
Learn not to laugh
Now you see the silent
Heads nodding silently
Sitting on the floor with a
Cell outside the washroom
Where the World Wide Web
Was once wondrous and wild
–Ticky Kennedy
Poet in Residence
SchoolNewsToday.com
NOTE
*“For centuries, Europeans who could read did so aloud. The ancient Greeks read their texts aloud. So did the monks of Europe’s dark ages. But by the 17th century, reading society in Europe had changed drastically. Text technologies, like moveable type, and the rise of vernacular writing helped usher in the practice we cherish today: taking in words without saying them aloud, letting them build a world in our heads.” Thu-Huong Ha, “The Beginning of Silent Reading Changed Westerners’ Inner Life.”
Also Read: Your Phone Bleeds For You