The Sheath

They started with blue. Phthalo. Copper already seated in each flat ring.

Above twenty-one gigapascals the rings closed into a tube. Diamond-like carbon. The copper locked into a straight line.

More than four thousand atoms. The old longest was twenty-eight.

Along it, current. Across it, almost none.

I will not call it a wire for chips. The leftover is the sheath still holding one atom thick.