To my alarm clock

To the digital alarm clock that sits, facing me, on my desk:

when i moved back into my renovated house,

with too much dark space in the crevices

one night, out of the shadows

i made a new friend.

now that sounds threatening, but i promise,

our relationship was always innocuous.

you brightened my nights

with your face

a moon of glowing electronic light

when it was too quiet

you counted for me just like counting sheep

to break the stillness

with your murmured breaths

till finally

after hours of wishing for your face to fade

i would drift into sleep.

that was how i realized why we so aligned

we were both bound by the same master that defined

you through your every breath,

and i for losing mine

when our master forces us together

we’re quarreling lovers matched in a duel to the death

fighting to survive and there’s not enough breath

you, the bearer of cold reality

and in the a.m.’s my best friend

till the lifting of the blinds of the sky brings your duties home

jerking me into the known

you pull me through the mud of these moments,

strangled and dark

but when the dawn breaks i can’t tell you and your master apart.