Suboptimal

I dwell at night among devices
that are linked up in the dark
and sometimes come alive
with lights, blinking on my desk
to indicate another message coming in
from a suboptimal world
I don’t much feel like living in
tonight, wanting only, like a child,
to pull the covers up and close my eyes
to cables and wires and the on-line
lie and the rigged life they try
to make me think is uncompromised and mine
and beyond anyone’s asking how this
makes better what’s left of my hours.