There’s an App for That

Paul coughed up a cloud of midges.
He thought they would disperse on the wind.
They remained clumped—about the size of a baseball.

The midges kept two feet in front of Paul
one foot above his head
and a little bit to his left.

They shifted out of the spherical shape
into a disembodied hand
utilizing sign language to spell words.

Paul felt stupid for never learning American Sign—
never foreseeing that he would need to learn it
for this occasion or any other.

He checked his smart phone app service
to determine if there was one
to translate American Sign into English.

copyright © 2022 Kenneth P. Gurney