Conversations in Silico

I speak to my computer like it is a person
and sometimes it speaks back. 
Often it tells me about RAM,
that living memory.  Not the data that lasts forever,
but instead the awareness of a day. 

"Hold on," it says, huffing, "I can only do so many things at once. 
I can run math problems and talk, or keep my screen on.  Pick two." 
Sometimes, when my demands really push my computer
"I'm only one machine.  I'm made of metal and silicon. 
You can feel my edges.  Stop." 
it is easy to see where it begins and ends.  I can hold it in my hands,
although I don't understand how it works completely. 

It moves slowly through the harder tasks,
although it always moves. 

My computer remembers, and keep remembering what has happened
until at the end of even
an uneventful day
it is reduced to
crawling. 
I turn the machine off then. 


-Citron