Brian’sPoems

The Collected Writings of Brian J. Mueller

A single poem, met at the right moment, can change a life.

Search and read all 1,834 pieces by Brian J. Mueller — 1,675 poems, 38 prose pieces, and 121 haiku from 12 published volumes. Free to read and share.

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Old Computer

A poem about the limits of analytical thinking...

I’m an old computer
running old software,
reliable, but not fast,
useful, but not sexy.

My architecture is similar
to the computers before me
and to the computers of today.
We all function the same,
yet with distinct capacities
to store and crunch data
and then to display those results
in some meaningful way.

Many among us are running old code,
and several suffer from “bit rot,”
that nebulous phenomenon
where our data gets scrambled.


Others have wiped their drives
and installed new operating systems,
hoping to compute forever
with an algorithm called immortality.

Yes I’m an old computer,
but also a wet one,
made of blood and bone,
with the circuitry to love deeply
and a primeval appreciation
for the non-computational.

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