The Rewriting of Elephant News

The computer, the laptop, the home of the original electronic manuscript - is no longer functional. It's not important how it got that way, or at least that isn't as important as the fact that it will no longer turn on. I have a theory, but this is not the place for unproveable accusations. This is the place for discussing the ramifications of the sudden laptoppian destruction.
The immediate consequence was that most of the electronic record of what I had written in the Elephant News story disappeared about a day before I expected to finish. I had saved about forty pages through self-email, but the rest was gone outside of my memory. Luckily, since I had done most of that writing in a relatively short period of time and I had recently read most of what I had written aloud (not to myself), hope was not lost.
If I had undertaken any major official responsibilities at the time, it probably would have been hopeless. Since I hadn't, I was able to spend the next week and a half re-writing, first on campus computers and then on my new computer when it arrived. That ordeal was reflected somewhat in the re-write, which I think turned out better than the first time I wrote it. But it wasn't good enough.
Several months later, I still hadn't gotten anywhere with it. But the inspiration for my next step started with a parody of Longfellow's Paul Revere poem for a contest that I didn't win, which led to me writing several other story-poems of at least 1000 words in length. Having done that over the course of one month was part of what convinced me that I could turn this story, which already contained severing rhyming components, into one huge narrative poem.
It took several months to write, but I'm happy with it. I think it turned out well and although some may disagree, I think it was the post possible use of my time at the time. And now it's done.