By: Ray Dangel

I gaze at the screen

and gaze and gaze.

The screen gazes back,

immune to me.

There's no value, I know,

in curses or threats,

yet I try one, then the other.

The screen is not impressed.

Modem's too slow, I think.

More RAM would help.

I dream -- ISDN, DSL ...

My wallet cringes in fear.

Right hand fondling mouse,

itchy index finger poised,

I'm ready to click and run

to a faster site on the Web.

But there's no guarantee

a new URL will help.

It might drop to 3K bytes/sec!

Back to the World Wide Wait.

Finally I get some action,

not what I expected.

Argh! The screen now says

"Server not responding."

Ray Dangel is a retired newspaper editor who lives in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains because they exert a bizarre influence on his fingers, causing them to churn out weird stories.