Two desks sat in a hall
each with its own color and tone
both in their boxes again
though this wasn’t the case earlier when
I had them uncased and they were compared
to other specimens in my home.
But they didn’t really compare
since they came from different worlds
Or did they compare?
Confusion sets in.
Does any of it matter anyway?
This process has more
back and forths
than any tennis match.
How many times did I seal them up
only to slide the knife down their box’s spine
and expose them to the air once more?
It’s so easy to forget
what something looks like
once it’s taped up in our memory.
But now I’m quite sure
neither of these will work
so it’s back to searching
for the perfect shade of veneer.