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
Malachi Black is the author of Storm Toward Morning (Copper Canyon Press, 2014), a finalist for the Poetry Society of America’s Norma Farber First Book Award, and a selection for the PSA’s New American Poets Series (chosen by Ilya Kaminsky). Black’s poems have appeared in journals including The American Poetry Review, The Believer,The Paris Review, Ploughshares, and Poetry, and have been recognized by a number of fellowships and awards. Black is an associate professor at the University of San Diego.
