Tomorrow's World

Procrastimonsters lie in wait
to prey on the unwary;
some are huge and fierce and bald
and some are small and hairy.

Fair Webgirl woke and stretched and yawned,
the sun shone on the bed:
'What is my first task for today?
Go back to sleep!' she said.

But as she dozed, procrastimon-
sters, gaining strength and health,
stuffed with sloth and guilt and dread,
grew fat with fungal stealth.

She rose and breakfasted, which set
monstrous antennae twitchin';
a cereal-killing ogre vowed
she'd not tidy the kitchen.

Teleprocrastipathic rays
from shelf and frigidaire,
sucked her good intentions down
the plug-hole of despair.

Ah, well, she thought, the day has come
to get that letter written.
No sooner had that thought arrived, than
oh! Webgirl was bitten!

A slimy, sly, procrastisnake
had settled by her ear;
she sensed its wily, whispered words:
'Yes, start that soon, my dear.

And sure, some soothing music too
will set the mood, you'll find,
and then some milky tea, you'll see,
will help to calm your mind.

Don't start to work, my dear, with prep-
arations incomplete;
first clear the room, and hoover round,
and make the desktop neat.'

The room was swept, the tea was made,
the music played, not loudly;
the desk was neat, the paper straight,
and Webgirl sat there proudly.

The snake, whose scheme was sinking fast,
called out for swift support:
a fierce procrastibogle sent
the girl a guilty thought.

'It's been too long, you can't write now,'
the goblin grim exclaimed.
'How could you let him down so long -
I trust you are ashamed!'

'Enough!' she sighed. 'No more!' she cried.
'Begone, you cretins you!
Be off and bother someone else,
this girl's got work to do.'

With that she lifted pen and wrote
a letter clear and polite,
and soon her tidy kitchen shone -
orderly, clean and bright.

The monsters gone, she danced for joy:
'I'll throw a party, too.
Let's see - today? Tomorrow? Hm -
I expect next week will do.'

Procrastimonsters lie in wait
to prey on the unwary;
but when you look them in the face,
they don't seem half so scary.

2001