[Verse 1 — female smoky raspy voice, intimate spoken stream of consciousness] Something in the air Not a smell exactly The housekeeper says rain but the pigeons left before the clouds arrived One stayed on the iron fence facing the wrong way Excellent security staff we have here Nineteen rooms in this mansion and I am taking advice from a pigeon My Rock star energy drink has gone warm against the window I keep moving it off the same pale circle on the wood Like that is the emergency Across town a doctor has become compulsory television They interrupted a cartoon for a close view of somebody losing teeth Apparently the weather comes after the autopsy now I know about the outbreak I have been watching the street Now I am checking what people have uploaded to Tik Tok Three streets filmed the same ambulance Three different captions said three different dead men Same dent above the wheel I put the clips beside each other One ambulance One man A town learning to count with its eyes shut The gate is locked My curtains are open I do not think those two things mean I am safe [Verse 2 — female smoky raspy voice, restless spoken stream of consciousness] Spotify is still playing something I uploaded before the roadblocks My voice reaches houses I would never enter That arrangement suited me Make something Send it out Stay upstairs Let a picture answer the door Now a woman below my window is arguing with an empty pushchair She keeps checking it before she crosses I cannot see inside Write that down properly Empty from this angle I will not become another person turning a bad view into a conclusion I pull the doctor’s broadcast onto the big screen Lovely A plague with commercial breaks He washes his hands while explaining why the patient cannot be believed Then touches his mouth Then the notebook Then his mouth again I go back to the first interview Before the missing teeth Before his coat had anything on it There is a black envelope beside his elbow He opens it off camera Comes back pressing two fingers against his temple The interviewer asks what he found He says a sentence I heard ten minutes ago On today’s live feed Yesterday’s recording on the left Today’s examination on the right Same sentence Same little swallow before the last word I stop the music The man downstairs with the clipboard keeps pointing at our windows Please let him be selling double glazing I would even listen to the whole presentation [Verse 3 — female smoky raspy voice, low tense spoken stream of consciousness] My drink is flat There are six tabs open and a seventh I have stopped clicking The hospital put up tomorrow’s report by mistake No patient name A description of a reaction A time I copy it before the page disappears Outside the woman leaves the pushchair against the pharmacy door Someone drapes a coat over it From here it looks like somebody sleeping From here I can see how much a distant view leaves out I move my chair closer to the glass The doctor starts his next examination I follow the saved report with my finger He asks the question The patient gives a different answer He reads the printed reaction anyway There Do not get excited One match is a match It is not permission to invent the rest But I keep looking at that envelope At his hand against his temple At the clean coat before the first captive arrived Something reached him before he started naming what was wrong with them Now each time he explains it the people outside repeat his words A little differently A little worse By the third mouth the woman at the pharmacy has become a carrier Nobody has gone near her I have filled twelve pages There is a thirteen waiting He has filled a television screen I would prefer my problem The clipboard man has reached the gate My name is not on the bell He checks his paper anyway I hate this part The shoes The stairs Having to stand inside the body that makes the art While somebody decides whether a girl can possibly have done the thinking I set the warm can on tomorrow’s report Keep the envelope visible on the other screen If his next question is already written down I need to hear what happens when someone gives him an answer he did not receive The bell rings I leave it ringing
