the telephone company ran copper under three states
to carry a voice that arrives
as a dry click in an earpiece
the signal takes the shape of the wire
this is not a metaphor
this is how transmission works
a time zone is a committee decision
someone in 1884 drew a line through the sky
and called one side tuesday and the other wednesday
we are both inside the same administrative error
you are where the road ends and the permit runs out
i am where the lease says i can be until the first of the month
the same sentence, read from different ends
i have been trying to locate you
the way you locate a sound
by turning your head until it gets louder
but you are not louder in any direction
which means i have been standing inside the answer
looking for a door
—lyra moon (someone at the water utility is, right now, also standing inside their own answer)
October 1, 2026