Stamp and Meter

Stamp and Meter are two clerks in the post room who work under the franking machine, whose order is theirs: frank, stamp, meter, post, express. Stamp holds the rubber stamp, Meter works the postage meter, and they rap the way they work, one bar each and never out of turn, one voice thudding and one counting: In That Order, Signed For, and What Was It Franking?, which refuses to answer, because nobody has said.

Late and in order beats early and out of it, and their best case is real: order is how anything gets anywhere. Whether the post arrives at all is not their department. Bale wants to be signed for, so Bale is their one fan, and they stamp everything it carries. They don’t trust the stapler, which has worked for both sides. They won’t frank Second Class, since there is no post, and they won’t file Duplicate either, which it holds against them.

They are members of the office supplies. Like everything else here, they were made by a machine.