A month of coins purchased what? An explanation for an inexplicable abhorrence left in the wake of defied expectation. A base motive is better than no motive.

*

Compare me to something and tell me what I am like.”

The first said to him, “You are like a just messenger.”

The second said to him, “You are like a wise philosopher.”

The third said to him, “Teacher, my mouth is utterly unable to say what you are like.

*

“…Thought is one thing, the deed is another, and the image of the deed still another: the wheel of causality does not roll between them.

An image made this pale man pale.”