Poe-etic Justice

Once upon a night so dreary, while I struggled tired and weary
Through my lexicon still seeking one insightful word,
While I worried, heart a-sinking, suddenly there came a blinking
As my screen was gently winking, and a clinking sound was heard,
'Tis a phantom, I intoned, that's what I saw and heard,
But that was quite absurd.

Ah, so clearly I recall, it was in the dank, cold, Fall,
And the shadows tall were creeping 'cross my office floor,
Eagerly I wished a sign and classic words that were just mine -
Just a faultless verse to open my creative door,
A rare intelligent verse to shake people to their core,
That's all I wished, and nothing more.

The CPU then whistled 'til my neck hairs stood and bristled,
It scared me - dared me to enter its mysterious realm one time,
So that now to stop the pounding of my heart I was expounding,
'Tis my imagination hounding me for a perfect rhyme,
My vivid imagination seeking just a flawless rhyme,
'Tis that - not some computer crime.

Then deep into the screen I faded, through the bits and bytes I waded,
Uncomprehending, fearful - I thought my life was at its end,
Everything was weird and jumbled as through cyberspace I tumbled,
Chased by running, screaming icons, I was going around the bend,
My mind is shutting down, I mumbled, I fear 'twill never mend,
On my brain I can't depend.

Everything turned shades of gray as night became another day,
And I awoke from a dream that went from bad to worse,
The keyboard imprinted on my face as through the web I ran my race,
That's all it was, I muttered, a dream and not a curse,
Just a dream and nothing worse,
But... my printer held one perfect, noble verse.