it's already [tomorrow] in Shanghai [midnight]
in [Palo Alto] and I'm working with Kumar [aka]
"Leisure Suit Larry" using [SQL commands]
on big iron [Oracle] with [SELECT statements]
and [WHERE clauses] searching [container] ships
for a [box] gone missing in the South China Sea
[an odd lot] of Jimmy Buffet [bobble heads]
200 cases of Blue Ray [DVDs] and five dozen
cartons of Popeye the Sailor [punching bags]
turned out by 14-year-old Kim working
the long shift in an [orange smog] Guangdong
[sweatshop] filling orders for a dollar store
In [Des Moines] as our deft fingers scour
the [shipping lanes] querying transactions
[sorting] [filtering] broadband waves
of [structured] [information] in climate
controlled [darkness] and I'm thinking
about the [punching bag] children
winding up their short sleeved arms
to bash their plastic foes [and the planet
we're burning] to make such happiness
[and how that's all we ever wanted]
when out of the din of [spinning discs]
Larry says he's found the [box] at the bottom
of a million record database [grinning]
as he explains that it was just a case
of a mistaken [space] between the "Pop"
and the "eye" in the word "Popeye" and
out in the valley the virtual night breathes
deep as the world again makes sense
Henry Crawford