Cubist Man with Thirteen Thousand Steps
Oil on linen, teal and burnt orange, 2025
Artist unknown (attributed to the Bureau of Ordinary Momentum)
Three planes converge at a figure whose arms extend
into separate rooms. Each hand holds a different hour.
The feet, visible in the lower register, repeat
in a frieze—left right left right left right—
until they become ornament, become wallpaper,
become the hum the building makes when no one
is listening. Note the children at the margins,
rendered in a softer grammar. Note how the clouds
are not above the figure but inside him,
and how every checkmark is also a bird
leaving.