The Stenographer Muses My dictator!  You speak and I surrender, I love.  I tuck my freedom away like a glove. I’m a dead page your words enliven, a vessel they possess. Though unsubstantial, they take hold of me, their chosen medium. They employ me, ear to fingertip, and I allow this, sacrificially. I live to give, I live to be of use. Once inside, my fluids change them marvelously. See how they stream from my pen in cryptic glyphs! I could be Sybil, sitting here, cloaking the sun god’s wisdom with my quirky script, or the keeper of some awful gnosis. Yes, the company fears me and pays me well. O my dictator, tell, tell. Kate Bernadette Benedict Kate Bernadette Benedict (kate.bernadette.benedict@gmail.com), in the masquerades of her working life, has survived jobs both temporary and permanent at more than 100 American corporations and nonprofits.