Two bytes diverged in a data path
and sorry I could not process both
And be one lone processor long I compiled,
And read the source as far as I could,
to where it looped into do-whiles.

Then read the other just as fair,
And having perhaps the better bits,
but was fragmented beyond repair.
Though as for that network there,
had worn them really about the same.

And both that router equally lay
In packets no kiddie had hacked
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet how traceroute leads on to ways,
I doubted if I should ping back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh,
somewhere cycles and cycles hence,
Two bytes diverged in a data path and I,
I took the one less routed by
and that made all the difference.