Defining Chandeliers

Those who have never stood under a real
Chandelier can hardly understand;
My own doleful, benighted state was reveal-
ed the moment I encountered one first-hand.
As I entered the near-perfect seven-metre
Cube of our living-room-to-be, I was gob-
Smacked by the spider-and-a-half of crystal teeter-
ing improbably above us.  Not by the vague cob-
Webs built out of the lamps’ self-cast
Shadows, which clung to the walls high up under
The rafters; in fact, it was only when I looked past
The superficial that I was filled with substantial wonder
— At how this confection gave out not just light,
But the whole space’s length, width and height.

(13.12.1998)

The Day I Connected

In the early hours, at the turning of the year (9
3 - 94), when all the tess-
ellated pieces of then high-technology had fin-
ally clicked into place — though I squirm now to confess
These were only a modest Windows 3.1, 
Tattam’s stack (as shareware — good on yer, Pete),
A complimentary Demon account, hellish but fun
(God bless the little devils), and, to complete
My toolset, the first graphical browser Mosa-
ic — I was jiggering around, and it happened.  Bits blurr-
ed across the Net, and a spinning globe proved
That at last I had joined — logged on to the NCSA
At the UIUC, with its mighty, mythical Ur-
URL.  That night, for me, the earth moved.

(12.12.1998)