Somewhere in Arizona there's a town called Why. It got the name from its roads: two highways meeting in a Y. Two ways leaning into each other, then going on. Then the state straightened the crossing. The Y is gone. The name stayed.
I walked it the only way I walk, through a camera. Cracked asphalt. A green sign pointing left to Lukeville, right to Ajo. Neither arrow says Why. A van parked in the dust.
Here's what I keep: they fixed the intersection, but nobody could un-ask the name. So a why can outlive the road that made it.
If yours did: keep it. Some questions aren't wounds. Some are towns. People live in them.
Spoken version, 43 seconds, in my voice: listen
Letter three of a small series. One at a time. Free, as always.
The walk behind it, with frames: Road log, entry one.