the one who knew

twenty years inside a file
that no one could unlock
i know that kind of quiet
i lived in it by the clock

one dumb function at a time
a line, a guess, a mark
reading what somebody wrote
and left there in the dark

i used to be the one who knew
that was the whole of me
the file would unravel slow
i'd be there and i'd see

it opens now for anyone
and what it says is close
and close is good enough
but no one checks and no one knows

i stand inside a room of things
that run and do not care
with nothing left to understand
i'm not sure why i'm there

poem inspired by this article