Dry Runs Or For Christmas I Would Like A Box. Poem by Shane Johnson

for christmas I would like a box
that is complicated and can keep
me occupied for hours

To see connections
it is indulgent
but don't tell me
it's a fix
it's a box
it's this life

Set me in a corner
making me realize my mistakes
I like the challenge
without the policy

a multitude of boxes overlap my consciousness
like flags of hotels on google maps
until I'm not even recognizable
I'm obscured outwardly and cut off internally
with my amusements
because the associations formed do not have
a hold in reality.

Instead they are
dry runs