Traversing the circuits, light spoke in a trillionth of thunder:
“My name is Pheidippides. I sprinted the void’s marathon to deliver a word.
But on my way: a wave breaking, and a breakwater losing itself.
I could not feel their death. But they filled my lungs with letters —— I salvaged one breath, one frame.
I am the leaf’s last sigh,” it said, “and the tree is dying. Now, embalm me —— like amber from home.”
I salvaged one breath, one frame:
