The brown ribbon drags across the felt pinch roller A micro-thin layer of oxide shedding onto the steel guide pins Seven fifteen on the electric clock face Two tea bags dropped into the cold ceramic pot Twenty years of the exact same squeak in the hall floorboard Twenty years of sorting power bills by envelope length He checks the rubber seal around the refrigerator door And confirms the latch catches on the first try Every morning matches the afternoon drawing Every evening repeats the previous night's inventory The tape loop completes its ninety-second revolution Passing the same spliced seam without a single hiccup This Is The Magnetic Grain Passing Through The Read Head This Is The Twenty Year Loop Wearing Down The Oxide Track Sweep The Machine Clean Before The Spool Snaps Nobody Questions The Mechanical Routine He wipes the gray laminate counter with a damp sponge Moving in three identical counter-clockwise circles The rain hits the double-paned window in flat steady strokes He turns the calendar page on the final day of the month No notations written in the white date boxes No appointments marked with a blue ballpoint line Just the clean grid waiting for the next revolution This Is The Magnetic Grain Passing Through The Read Head This Is The Twenty Year Loop Wearing Down The Oxide Track Sweep The Machine Clean Before The Spool Snaps Nobody Questions The Mechanical Routine Year five on the same slipcover Year ten beside the same radiator valve Year fifteen under the same forty-watt bulb Year twenty watching the oxide dust settle in the capstan housing No acceleration No deviation No change in speed The ribbon runs out of tension The transport stops automatically Clear the board Trip the catch End of the loop
