The Box of Tissues

Between signification
And meaning lies intention
Entangled with memory.

Boxes of tissues are new
Technology, more recent
Than ubiquity suggests—

Cardboard cartons of pages,
Thin, flimsy, disposable,
Absorbent squares of paper

Haven’t been around that long
Compared to mousetraps and wheels,
Never mind language and fire.

Look at a box of tissues
With eighteenth-century eyes.
Isn’t this mysterious?

Through your own eyes you see use,
And what the tissues are for
Blurs to what they mean for you.