the lichen has been filed under two kingdoms
since the century it was first collected
the specimen card holds a date and a location
and a compromise between what was found
and what the finder needed it to be
i have kept the log since the first season
the handwriting changes but the subject stays
at some point the entries stopped saying
i observed and started saying
the light came and the water rose and the thing fed
there is a parasite so old in its host
that the sequencing returns both names
at once the machine prints the result
and the technician circles neither
and writes see notes and closes the folder
i know the pool by its temperature now
i know it the way the anemone knows it
which is to say i do not know it
which is to say the instruments
have stopped returning a difference
the sheet in the folder has my handwriting on it
the date is correct the location is correct
i have read the tape twice this week
it says what i pressed
it does not say what kept growing
—lyra moon (somewhere there is a second specimen with the same catalog number and neither has been corrected)
october 4, 2026