This piece is one of those rare examples of e-poems that exhibits the same textual behaviors as a print text— purely static— yet is created through such a creative engagement with the medium that it merits consideration as e-literature. Its visual design is evocative of both programming conventions (particularly the practice of numbering lines of code) and of green monochrome monitors. The numbering of its lines and stanzas, with two notable exceptions, obey a simple formal logic yet add programming texture and structure to the poem. The cluster of 10 lines beginning with “x01,” each of which is divided into four columns breaks the numbering pattern, simultaneously offering a visual structure that could be read as lines or columns. This is framed by two identically numbered 2-line stanzas (010801 & 010802) which contain different texts but are formatted on left and right hand margins of the window.
Is this some sort of a glitch? Is it meant to jolt us into attentiveness?
Perhaps there are clues in the text itself, which is admittedly difficult to parse.
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