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The Jupiter Review
Elegy for Telephone Wires
Matthew Schultz
When I was old enough to be left home alone
but not yet old enough to enjoy the solitude, I
​
would call my grandmother on the telephone
and imagine the signal playing along those wires
​
between us, connecting us like a ship tethered
to its sunken anchor. But I can no longer trace
​
the journey of my call as it travels into space,
bouncing off satellites and dancing through
​
the atmosphere as if no one is looking. Now,
our faces appear imprisoned like ghosts conjured
​
from some interstitial place: liminal, unmoored,
adrift on the eternal sea and facing time itself.
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Matthew Schultz teaches creative writing at Vassar College. His recent work appears in Southchild, Warning Lines, and Glitchwords.
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