ODE TO A NEW COMPUTER
jose hernandez diaz
A man bought a new computer because he felt otherwise dead inside. The first thing he did
when he got home was write a new poem on the computer. The poem was about love and loss
and suns and oceans. The man titled the poem, Ode to a New Computer. In the beginning of
the poem, the man used rhyme to describe his feelings about the computer: dream machine. At
the end of the poem, the man used alliteration to detail his love for the world-wide-web:
insatiable internet. He was no longer empty inside. No, he had his computer, now. He had his
new poem. He had his dignity, once again.
Jose Hernandez Diaz is a 2017 NEA Fellow. He is the author of The Fire Eater (Texas Review Press, 2020). His work has appeared in The American Poetry Review, Boulevard, Crazyhorse, Georgia Review, Huizache, Iowa Review, The Kenyon Review, The Los Angeles Times, LitHub, The Nation, Poetry, The Southern Review, and in The Best American Nonrequired Reading. He has been a finalist for The Andrés Montoya Prize, The Colorado Prize, The Akron Prize, The Wisconsin Poetry Series, and The National Poetry Series. Currently, he is an Associate Editor at Frontier Poetry. Also, he teaches creative writing online through Frontier and Litro Magazine.