aba Yaga
was a little irked
the next morning
to discover that
somehow
to complete all her chores.
She had been looking forward
to a little breakfast of girl
but settled for a bowl
of instant oatmeal
and a Pop-tart.
Before she blew off for the day,
the hag gave Vasalisa a few more assignments.
“See this?”
Baba yaga pointed to an enormous heap of
dark tidbits
black specks
“You must Pick out:
the poppy seeds from the dirt
the periods from the pixels
the dashes ---- •••• from the dots”
“And over here...
See this pile?”
Vasalisa looked at an even larger mound
“You need to SPECIFY these for me:
the good grain from the rotting wheat
the CMYK Gold from the RGB yellow
the elegant typeface
from the grungy font”
Here’s the MOST IMPORTANT stack”
The Yaga gestured toward a tower of paperwork...
“You need to separate:
the fresh corn from
the mildewed corn
the beautiful images
from the ugly images
the thoughts
from the feelings
And if you’re not done by the time I get back...
Then I’ll have YOU for supper!”
She ran a wicked tongue across her own zig-zaggy grin
and pretended to be reading from a cookbook:
“Let’s see...
How to Prepare:
Vasalisa Surprise...”
When the hag was gone,
Vasalisa looked at the rubble
and crumpled down into herself.
No Way!
Not humanly possible!
She was teetering
on the edge of a tantrum.
But then again,
up popped the little doll,
(pocket protector that she was.)
“sssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”She said to Vasalisa.
“Don’t Worry!
I’ll help you, and ALL this work will get done.”
And so Vasalisa’s
personal assistant
her tiny search engine
went on automatic pilot
sorting
separating
optimizing
batch-processing
all the tedious
and time consuming
operations
that needed to be finished
by deadline.
When Baba Yaga
returned home that evening,
she was surprised
by how much the girl
had been able to accomplish
.
