Eulogy For The Cassette

I saw a news article last night where the inventor of the CD has admitted that it is now obsolete in the face of USB drives, iPods and DVDs. It got me thinking about this, which I only wrote a month or so ago.

Farewell ferro-magnetic medium
Five decades have rolled to this day
But now the tape has run out.
Now the factories are closed on you
like vinyl so many years ago.
In the parts of my library
only browsed by dust
my collection accepts the news as inevitable.
No longer will we hear the faint hiss
and see the slow analog roll.
All hi-fi will lower themselves
the regulation eight centimetres
as tape players are unplugged
and removed in respect.
CDs look nervously over their shoulder
as the avalanche of time
rolls down behind them.
TDK and BASF have scattered
the first few iron filings on your plastic case.
Your spool run all the way through
to be turned back over to Side 1 no more.
Farewell.

Now playing : “Two Step (Live)” Dave Matthews Band
Now reading: “The Penguin Book of French Verse 4: The 20th Century” edited by Anthony Hartley