Some of you must remember taking shorthand! I learned during it's last glory days, and got my first good office job on the ability.

Walking in the dim cloisters
of shorthand
chanting the hieroglyphs
we are Technical School acolytes.
You see us in the halls
Gregg in our arms like
a purple badge of courage.
Speed is our Revelation,
trained by a secretarial Diana who
strikes our errors
like the Moon.

You need love to conquer shorthand.
To achieve it,
you must live like a nun--
no late nights or serious boyfriends.
Just early mornings with your tape,
the hand and the mind
in surprising battle
while chasing the mysterious vocalizer
down the storm sewer of aural memory.
You prepare alone
for that gauntlet of the scribes--
the five minute take.