Each Crack in My Voice Is Static from Another World

Malachi Black

I’m unintelligible: black glass
split, a broken lens: or is it

closed, this aperture: a little
hole, bored like an orca’s eye

into a camera: on screen,
a flicker pixelating, blue

as a butane flame: binary,
this is zero, yes: one, no: it

is, it isn’t: on, it’s midnight:
I can see it in the living

room: it’s clear, I’m standing in
the image, distant: here

I hear, so let’s begin: I blink
the signal, host: hello: I speak

in code, I say: my name, echo,
repeat, it’s strange, I see, I’m re:

arranged: I have to go, that is:
I’m breaking up; I can’t, I’m in:

the network: error: message, me,
is it: the microphone, I’m in

this face, the signal failing is
my own: I am satellite: hello