middle of the night comes like scissors,
scraping the bottom of a ribbon so it curls.
the point isn't to wrap a gift but to bind it.

I don't try to understand why the red on the clock is so much fuzzier
than if it were green
or why some cars have orange dashboards now - is that some new-millennium trick?
if things are on fire then they're digital?

sometimes I wish we still sent packages in brown paper
and wrote on them in pen instead of marker
and stamped ink instead of stickers

something about the red on the cable box just seems so harsh at night
as if it wants to overtake the darkness
separate itself from pills and snacks and make itself some bold scratching animal
insisting on its curse

why do boxes have to be so well insulated these days
instead of smudging themselves on the walls?
the walls all seem to have to gloss themselves over to prevent anyone
from getting too much living on them.
maybe soon they'll all be laser-beamed
so there's no mistaking inside from out or hi-fi from dead.

Written in 2007.