Genre crossing

The following poem was inspired by NeXTWORLD's December 1993 cover art, which showed a whimsical view of the evolution of how information managers have moved from the Stone Age to the multithreaded present.

Next Steppe
This is where the Renaissance begins
where the test pattern dissolves
into a picture organic
with applications
serving a multitude of users
	in honor of the mainframes
	whose majesty should not be forgotten
	in rooms of corporate power
Outwardly from the nine seas
we ventured
with sextant and chart
until our destiny manifests
no abacus could count
	in honor of Alexander the Great
	whose face rendered
	haunts for the world
The object was survival
when stereoscopic mastodons
ran through caves
those dark icons
of memory and myth
	in honor of the first inventor
	who in the fire
	discerned the codicil
David Erikson