Typewriter

National Typewriter Day

No longer do we hear the tap, tap, tap
Of the mechanical typewriter, like back in the day
when it was all about words per minute; your speed  -
if you wanted to end up as a typing-pool lead.

Typing was more physical, the keys heavier
with a lot of stress on your wrists,
You had to manually roll your paper in place, 
and if you went wrong, there was no deleting ‘backspace’.

You had to physically move the carriage-return,
before continuing your next typed line of words 
and if you typed far too quickly, 
letter typebars could collide, become tangled very thickly.

Computer keyboards are pussycats by comparison
With hardly any strength required to type,
And if you’re a messy typist the backspace key is a godsend
If you want finish your work,  mistake-free by the bitter end.