The hallway fire extinguisher is named Badger
And the rounded effigies on the first floor vending machine lack
The appropriate replica for diet coke
So someone hand-wrote the words on a piece of paper and stuck it there
In the rounded plastic
slot signifying all the real ones inside
While outside
The wind beckons
So real, so deep, night-real, night-deep
The way you might pick up pieces
Of sand dollars along the beach as light falls beneath the western
Horizon
Counting each–a quarter, a dime, or half-dollar
Fraction of the living
Miracle of ocean, deep and full of
things bigger than us
Bigger than either diet coke or Badger or
The things that would keep a body awake
In the deep
Of night
While outside the wind still beckons
Singing lullabies in siren voices
To the sleepless
Us
