Abort, Retry, Ignore

                             (The Raven parody)

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       Once upon a midnight dreary, fingers cramped and vision bleary,
          System manuals piled high and wasted paper on the floor,
                    Longing for the warmth of bedsheets,
                   Still I sat there, doing spreadsheets,
                       Having reached the bottom line,
                      I took a floppy from the drawer.
         Typing with a steady hand, I then invoked the SAVE command
        But got instead a reprimand: it read "Abort, Retry, Ignore."

           Was this some occult illusion? Some maniacal intrusion?
         These were choices Solomon himself had never faced before.
                      Carefully, I weighed my options.
                   These three seemed to be the top ones.
                       Clearly, I must now adopt one:
                        Choose Abort, Retry, Ignore.

                     With my fingers pale and trembling,
                     Slowly toward the keyboard bending,
          Longing for a happy ending, hoping all would be restored,
                         Praying for some guarantee
                          Finally I pressed a key -
                      But on the screen what did I see?
                       Again: "Abort, Retry, Ignore."

                   I tried to catch the chips off-guard -
                     I pressed again, but twice as hard.
                       Luck was just not in the cards.
                        I saw what I had seen before.
                         Now I typed in desperation
                         Trying random combinations
                      Still there came the incantation:
                        Choose: Abort, Retry, Ignore.

       There I sat, distraught, exhausted, by my own machine accosted
         Getting up I turned away and paced across the office floor.
                       And then I saw an awful sight:
                    A bold and blinding flash of light -
      A lightning bolt had cut the night and shook me to my very core.
                      I saw the screen collapse and die
                       "Oh no - my database," I cried.
                      I thought I heard a voice reply,
                      "You'll see your data Nevermore."

                          To this day I do not know
                     The place to which lost data goes.
          I bet it goes to heaven where the angels have it stored.
                       But, as for productivity, well
                    I fear that it goes straight to hell.
                     And that's the tale I have to tell.
                     Your choice: Abort, Retry, Ignore.