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Spoken version
A recorded reading of “Tab and Threshold”. If the player does not load, use the original audio source.
Forms on forms: small squares asking what I am. I sign. I hold my face to task. A laugh gets stapled as noise. By the last box your eyes click shut like laminate. Drop the quiz. Watch hands. Breath outnumbers brand. Let my name be sound, not a barcode. After work the bar is a bright records room: strip-lights, low talk, tabs printing warm. “We should hang sometime”—the tab prints SOMETIME, date left blank, threads bite like paper edges, courage clocks out, the train leaves without us, meanwhile doors held, chairs un-scraped, small tips, till-tape curling— biography in the margins. Mask after mask creaks on my jaw’s hinge. Under the paperwork a live pulse knocks— loose key metal in a pocket. So make one clear plan: Tuesday, seven-fifteen. One drink. One loop. We leave. File me as friend. Let the forms rest. A stamp in pen: human, warm. The queue rope loosens, the line softens and lets us through.
Lyrics
forms on forms, tiny squares what do you do, you ask I pin a smile with staples I wear my face like task music, work, where, when I tick, I nod, I bend a laugh gets filed as noise your eyes go cold by end drop the quiz, read hands watch breath, not brand let my name be sound not a scanned line file me as friend let the forms end bars are glass museums talk gleams, then thins we say we should hang sometime code for don’t begin the inbox eats soft chances the thread grows teeth, then sleeps I miss the train of courage I count the tracks too deep ask me less, notice more how I hold doors how I wait, how I tip how I leave room for yours file me as friend let the forms end mask after mask like folders I wear them till I creak you scan for polish, fit I try a warmer cheek under the paperwork a small live pulse still knocks it hums like loose key metal it wants two feet, one walk say one clear small plan tuesday, seven fifteen one drink, one loop, we leave let time make space feel clean file me as friend let the forms end no job here, no review no Q four for us two chips in rain, one bench one note held true file me as friend let the forms end file me as friend let the forms end [stamp:] human, warm, in pen
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