NAPOWRIMO2020 - Poem 17

Prompt: write a poem that features forgotten technology

CDs Remastered; Compact Discs Rememembered

Like 8 tracks and cassettes, CDs 💿
are almost obsolete technologies,
Just ask Sam the record man

Those shiny, silver discs once dazzled me
with magic,
Or, if you’re more scientifically inclined - a semi conductor laser wrote and read music that
enticed my ears and affected my life.

That’s the magic of the mix cd.

Now, I’m left with a museum of mementos;
thousands of sparkling memories in the mixes of youth.
Unhelpful titles scrawled across
in my 13, 17, 21 year old handwriting,
Relics representing events and feelings of ‘the best days of our lives’- not!

• when ‘we were young, we were free!’

Long since forgotten what the titles mean;
they used to mean the world.
Now, a total surprise and a complete mystery
you don’t solve until you slide that cd into the player...
Wait for her to load .....
and let loose all wild a n d f r e e.
On the open road, you suddenly give nod to the equivalent of a stuck record needle, or the crumbling mess of cassette tapes, or a streaming stuckness.

Going digital is the loss of the craft.
It doesn’t have that certain slant of light;
It’s just data and it’s invisible,
all up in a cloud somewhere.
With all the space in the world, you can add or delete songs on a whim.

We used to slave over our latest creation.
Couldn’t wait for all the appreciation
Everybody wang-ed, everybody chung-ed
Everybody had fun tonight
Finite selections - 80 minutes, 18 or 19, 20 songs max -
Gotta be selective,
You had to pick and choose
Keep a specific theme or mood
Order mattered - Let’s face it,
No one knew how to work the shuffle
on those awkward clunky Discmans anyway! -
You had to be certain.
Once burned, burned forever!

Oh, and,
Never in the right case at the right time;
Chasing the perfect song,
Hunting for happiness and happy surprises.

That’s the magic of the mix cd.


(April 23, 2020)