Devon Balwit 

Struggling to Keep Pace 

— after Pollock’s Stenographic Figure 1942

The stenographer stopped taking dictation long ago.
Now the boss leans over his phone and dictates:

To whom it may concern. Colon. The medium dictates
the message. Something is lost—the tachygraphic

swoop of words in air—the tachygraphic
brain, decoding. I have stopped registering

the seriousness of the situation, the deaths hardly registering.
Only ten more than at this time last year. Here

we have flattened the curve. Here,
it feels absurd to go masked, to step off the curb

so that others can pass. The stenographer cannot curb
her enthusiasm. The air about her goes viral,

a burgeoning register of breath. Gone viral,
the stenographer stopped taking dictation long ago.

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