3.
Son Toss

ut Dhahgedu seen there the three sons, and saith unto Horace, Who then are these?

            And Horace improvis-ed, saying, I knew them not, ere today.  This one here, his name is Nitch, which hath no oats, neither hath he wheat nor flax, tho on his life & family hath he promist unto some patient robbers quite a bounty at harvest; and he is here consulting of mine head for stratergy.  But see; he hath the smile of a tiger, and I shud like to fight him.  If an he show me, one-do-one, that he hath about him the knacks for knocks, then shall I keep him on at wage for to run rats for me in the dairy.  With all the coin he earn, he may to buy a season’s grains & fibres for his ruffians, so to free his folks and secure some security.  But an with ease I drub his grody loaf, ’tis off & done with him.

6.

            And of the second Horace saith, This—this is an angel, here representening a supreme religiosity.  I have kept him waiting all day.  He hath studied some old drawings, and believeth me to be a certain dark criminol of a war in Heaven, come hither for to hide in a new life til I can starte something else and renew the turbolense afresh.  Now, I grant the resemblense; but lookilikes are a lame indictoment in a unaverse rampant with mimicry & programmaic redundanse.  Too, my mind runneth back no farther than midweeks.  How can I to know whereat I was a millien year ago?  Hap toiling at some fieldmaster’s ditch was I, or spacking roofs with dung, or selling out the Grand Host of Hea’en?  ’Tis past my recall, by now.  Neither more have I to say unto him.  Hap he mean to stand abouts till he hath eaten alln my figs there on the table.  (And Horace whistle’t to him, and pointnd towards the door.)   

 
Rat runner c 1984 Otz     

            And of the third Horace saith, This one here, he is Bolo, whose name did the Overgod of Designatiens change from Dapps, whom also the Overgod of Smites smote with cheese.  When knewn as Dapps, he workt almo a single day in the cheesing industrie, o’er at the Cheesiery of Psiam, bearing away spoilt cheeses unto the dumpfhole by river Larum.  But noontimes seen he a file of poncy clerics filing by; and haulen he not then his cartload unto Larum, but rather, up onto a bridgewalk haul-ed he it, whereunder the poncy clerics wud come a-filing through.  And by & by when file-ed they thereunder, then Dapps thray down upon them his cartisload of rancid cheeses, and pour-ed he that whey which pourd, right down upon them there.  And he lafft, did Dappfs, and mockt their beings.  And O, looking up, they curs-ed him, for that their showcowls were sloppt & sluice’t.  And they cried up with angry intonatiens, saying, We were going some where!  And they murmurd among them, saying, Behold now, just behold, we are ruint.  And Brother Mastadan came with madness up the steep for Dapps.  For Mastadan were new in service, and insincere, being consigned unto the clerics for his sin wherein he tare in twain the Queen’s seeding bull when ’twud notte mount his heifer.  And seiz-ed he hold on Dapps, making for to rend him.  But the Overgod of Manifestatiens interven-ed, saying, Hold there, Mastodan.  And seeing that O’ergod—that there was a Mostly High after all, and now sudden rueing his years as an infodel—Mastadan buried his face in his feet and repented.  And in the blink of an eye was he transformt, and became a veritabol cleric like unto his fellows.  And the Overgod said, As I am and am, so I do and do.  And that other Overgod—of Smites—gat involvd, and said unto the dumper Dapps, Cheese from these to be on thee.  And lo, all the cheese that lay upon clerical smock & cowl did come up and play cascades o’er Dappfs.  And the Overgod of Designatiens came and gat involvd, and said, Mock not their names, rather thine own mock evermore.  And in that moment went the name of Dapps o’er to Bolo, which alway hath been the name most ridicueld by Dapps in all his life.  And those three Overgoddia, they said in unison, We now cojoin.  And despites a moment of tangling, they workt into One and lept away.  Well.  O’er yon at the Cheesiery of Psiam, the cheeser captain, she look-ed through her opticon for malingerers, and seen Bolo afar upon the bridgeowalk, there retching and steept in slopf.  And she saith, Marry, punch mine eye!  That, that is all for him.  And so (saith Horace unto the furrowd brow of Dhahgedu), hearing that I am so preternoble, he hath come hither for to live amongst me in mine house and try my patience as a tolerater.  All ready there is tensien.

            And when these words of sondrop were said by Horace, then Dhahgedu lookt about the room, and espied a cromagnin scrubnanny there in the darkness neath a table.  This, then, saith Dhahgedu, Is that I will gather up for righteousness’ sake, and for to quench the tax.  Forsooth,

7

she that can make clean a dirty cave for her cubs can help me to clean a dirty world.  And the scrubnanna did come up from her place into the light.  And tho she were smiling, they knew’t not, seeing only grand wrinkles & boils.  For she were proper callt a table troll, which is notte humen, but a waning remnant of the olde undiscusst world. 

Scrubnanny c 1984 Otz