The Stenographers Union, by Phill Provance

Phill Provance’s poetry and prose have previously appeared in the
Baltimore Sun, Orbis, Arsenic Lobster and others. His second chapbook,
Given to Sudden Laughter, is forthcoming from Cy Gist Press in 2019.
He lives in Woodstock, Illinois, with his son, Ledger, and is currently
completing his MFA at WV Wesleyan.

About the poem:

“The Stenographers Union” came about as an attempt to create a Deep Image
montage within the rhetorical framework of an intimate admonishment—
with the ultimate aim that the reader would construct meaning from it as if
looking into a mirror, rather than having a controlled meaning dictated to
her. Intentionally glib, it also toys with enjambment to, I hope, come across as
something like a MadLib: as irreverent toward itself as toward its subject matter.