Vacation Messages

There is a facility, on Unix systems, to change one's email so that when
one is away, anyone who sends one mail, gets sent an email, containing a
message from the user, and that one will read that email when one
returns. The "message" part is fully configurable, and I got tired of
putting in boring messages like "I'm on holiday for two weeks" so I
got a bit more creative, and wrote some doggerel instead. Here are
some of my efforts.

by Kathryn Andersen

Aussiecon

Fare thee well, oh feckless friends,
I'm off away, my worktime ends
But "I'll be back", as Arnie said
When home from Aussiecon I tread.

Flying I

I am gone
I am flown
Across the sea
I am gone.
I shall be back
from far away
in a week, two weeks,
and in a day.

Flying II

With apologies to Robert Frost....

I have been one acquainted with the flight.
I have flown out in rain-- and back in rain.
I have outflown the furthest city light.
I have flown o'er the saddest city lane.
I have passed by the watchman on his beat
And picked up my luggage, unwilling to explain.
I have stood still and heard the engines whine
When far away an unintelligable cry
Came over PA-systems from another 'line,
But not to call me back or say good-bye;
And further still at an unearthly height,
One luminary clock against the sky
Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.
I have been one acquainted with the flight.

Britain-Bound

(February 2001)

As the heat turned over into red
I packed my bags and desert shores I fled
Straight into Winter's cold embraces
They say it's Spring, but wintertime to me
It's not for weather but the happy faces
Of fannish friends there that I long to see
And so I go.
Not for a sennight,
Not for a fortnight,
But almost a score of days, I am gone.

Yet, there be hope, if the Web stretch far
That I may see, though far I rome,
My mail at foobox, if I chance
To touch the Web 'fore I get home.