Ode to 2014

Here's to that email you never answered,
the message you never got,
still flagged and beeping,
haunting in being unknown
to all but the sender.
Nagging and distracting
like an unscratched lotto ticket
or a joke, unheard because you arrived too late.
"You had to be there"
but you were unavailable
as the message sits,
bored.

Whatever emergency we are waiting for
we wait too long,
with false flashing yanking us
to action-reaction,
seeing and skimming and sitting
and revealing to us no less than we expect;
minutiae.

The attack move to click
to see or hear what might be there
gives only a hasty rush
as we unfurl objects of glitter
to finally know no more than we did before.
Must a hamster run in its wheel
just because it's there?