i wrote it out carefully
the way you are supposed to
i checked the address twice
it came back with a stamp i hadn’t seen before
too late in the evening
i looked it up
it was valid
i rewrote it shorter
it came back
too much at once
i rewrote it again
on a day that seemed clear
it came back
not a good time
there is an office where they send the ones
that have been returned enough times
the staff there don’t read them
they hold them for a statutory period
and then they are disposed of
i have the postmarks
i can prove the letters were sent
i can prove the address was correct
i cannot prove
what was inside them anymore
i rewrote the last one very short
one sentence
i left it at the door
i watched through the window
to see if it was picked up
i am still not sure
what the right length is
i am still not sure
what time of day
i am still not sure
if the door i was leaving it at
was a door
—lyra moon (the answering machine in my parents’ basement still has eleven messages nobody has claimed)
october 11, 2026