Christine Lavin

Way back last century I joined America Online

had to come up with a password uniquely mine

i picked the word lightning

I have no idea why

lightning’s gonna be my password

til the day I die

Then I opened an account with Amazon

they wanted a password too

so again I picked the word lightning

it was a logical thing to do

then I joined Facebook

they said a single word was not sufficient

they wanted both letters and numbers

to be safe and efficient

So I added the number 52 to my word lightning

lightning52 is is my facebook password

my online skills are hightening

then I heard it’s dangerous to use

the same passwords everywhere

so I figure what’s easy to remember

and accompanies lightning up in the air?

Thunder — that’ll be my new password

as I download iTunes

but they also want a number so thunder1

is what I picked that afternoon

then I joined satellite radio

another password to create

what goes with lightning and thunder?

hale! that’ll work just great

But they said hail is too short a word

but hailstones that works fine

I’ve come a long from obsolete

America Online

Then I join gmail

lightning thunder hailstones — twister!

but they tell me that’s a weak password

so I consult my little sister

How bout the word hurricane?

but add a number to make it secure

hurricane 53 kept the bad guys

from my digital door

so far so good until the day

facebook let me know

somebody hacked into my account

my old password has got to go Oh NO!

Lightning52 became lightning53

but only for a couple of weeks

‘cause my account got hacked again

and my password needed tweaks

but lightning54 was rejected

too close to lightning53

so I made a bold choice — humidity9

that’s the new password for me

Now everything was A-OK

til I let a friend use my laptop

she did something to my aol account

that brought it to a screeching stop

they said she emailed way too many people

so my account got junked

I could reopen it in 24 hours

but my password was now defunct

So aol gave me a new password

my zipcode and my inititals

and they said if I didn’t like it

I could change it back to something more creative

and less official

I tried changing it back to lightning

but they said nope, pick another word

for whatever reason at that particular moment

typhoon56 is what I preferred

Lightning

lightning52

thunder1 - OK

hailstones

hurricane53

kept me safe and secure today

lightning53

lightning54

I’m starting to get confused

what are they the passwords for?

humidity9

cl10025

i think i’m starting to overload

my brain’s external drive

typhoon56

I don’t remember what that does

if only I could go back

to the time when lightning was

the only password I had to remember

the only password to memorize

the only password to open sesame everything

under digital skies

but the days of the single simple password

are ancient history

I’m gonna change my password to

imanoldidiot123