my monitor is frozen
in late four-something sun
that cuts through icy patterns
another day's begun
recalling all my losses
while trying to ignore
the theme that keeps repeating
from Call of Duty 4
i tap-tap off the volume
and stare out at the road
where cars and snowploughs scroll by
a broken line of code
from some embedded program
that executes our town
the river and the co-op
this house that's falling down
so tape over my window
with dark green garbage bags
enclose my name in brackets
to start and end forever
above the wheezy breath
of cooling fans and hard-drives
beyond the screens of death