Page 28 - My Creative Writing Portfolio

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ODE TO MY OLD MAC COMPUTER

This MacAir—precious gift to me,
Became my companion for eleven years.
Always beside me,
You never left—
Or perhaps,
I never left you.
Maybe it was both.

You grew beyond being an object.
You became a presence.
Through you, I spoke to the world;
Through you, the world spoke back.
You were my window—
Wide, patient, and faithful.

I poured my thoughts into your memory,
And you returned them as many forms—
Books, articles, photographs,
Fragments of a life carefully stored.

Like me, you too began to age.
You carried growing weight,
Your storage exhausted,
Your breath slowing.
You struggled to open and stand—
Like an old donkey
Bent beneath its loyal load.

Friends urged me to discard you,
To replace you with something newer, faster.
They called me miserly for holding on.
Yet parting with you
Felt like abandoning a silent friend.

When you could no longer bear new burdens,
I trimmed your weight,
Reformatted your memory,
Tried to restore your strength.
For a while, you revived—
But modern technology marched too quickly,
Leaving you behind.

At last, I emptied you.
Stripped of memories,
You became a hollow shell—
A quiet box
Where echoes once lived.