4. Explanation of Stanza 5

 

  

The poet's grandmother who started using technology initially only for the sake of connecting with her long lost friends and family, slowly becomes obsessed with it, that she lets the device take control of her. The poet refers to this incident of her becoming fully captivated as being gobbled by the virus of the computer. The entire poem is also written in such a way that the diction being used is completely technology oriented. Human beings are referred as being searched for in recycle bins and folders.

 

Since the grandmother is missing and cannot be found by search engines or the internet, the poet wonders if she is inside anyone's inbox. This refers to the fact that she must be sending messages to people and lured into the world of connecting. The grandmother missing could mean that she is obsessively texting someone and has no time for the real world. The poet appeals to anyone whose inbox the grandmother is in, to send her back. But rather than saying it in simple terms, they are being asked to cut copy the grandmother and paste her into an e-mail to the poet. This shows that in today's world, even if one has to see their grandmother, it has to be with the help of these technological aids. This entire poem is just for fun, and he is playing on words, mostly for a comic reception.