[Jayne Osborn]

I'm sure you're right, Chris, that a Betjemanesque version is called for here.
"Slough" has such a distinctive metre and rhyme scheme that I can't really see that a re-write could be done in anything other than the same ones.

But you never know...

Nothing in life (or poetry) surprises me any more!

Jayne

[Brian Allgar]

Well, I hope there's a bit of leeway. I stuck to the rhyme-scheme, and to the metre, except that my fourth lines were slightly longer than the original 4-syllable ones ... I used an extra foot, in which I may have shot myself.

[Brian Allgar]

(This seems a good opportunity to have another go at my bete noire)

Come, friendly bombs, and fall on Gates,
The man whom every user hates
For putting us in desperate straits -
Admit it, you do!

When Windows hits the “screen of death”,
We grit our teeth and hold our breath,
Or growl some Luddite shibboleth
And turn to voodoo.

A little figure made of wax
Impaled with pins or carpet-tacks;
Yet somehow this solution lacks
A proper blitz.

So tumble, bombs, your goal awaits,
Obliterate his solid states,
And, like his software, let’s see Gates
Reduced to bits.

[Douglas G. Brown]

Brian,
Brilliant! This ought to win first prize.

[Jerome Betts]

Yes, nice one, Brian. Love 'Luddite shibboleth'! (Capital L as from name Ludd?)

Slight stumble in Line 4?

[Brian Allgar]

Originally Posted by Jerome Betts

Yes, nice one, Brian. Love 'Luddite shibboleth'! (Capital L as from name Ludd?)

Slight stumble in Line 4?

Thanks, Douglas and Jerome.

Capital L duly applied, Jerome. The apparent stumble was a question of emphasis, now made explicit:

Admit it, you do!

[Janice D. Soderling]

D&A is the best board on the Internet. What a collection of witty, lovable, laughable. disrespectful. international TALENT.

[John Whitworth]

Well, of course it is. The trouble is they are all so bloody brilliant I can never get a winner these days. In particular the blessed Algar and his many aliases (mutter, mutter, mutter)