med_cat: (Fall trees lake)
Nechama Chaya ([personal profile] med_cat) wrote2009-10-28 04:34 pm

Under The Floor

This seemed appropriate to the season :)

Enjoy,
Cat

UNDER THE FLOOR

Everybody knows how the waters come down at Lodore,
But what about voices coming up through the floor?
Oh yes, every time that into a task you set your teeth
Something starts talking in the room underneath,
And no matter how many authorities you quiz,
You can never find out who or what it is;
You know one thing about it and nothing more,
That it is just something that goes around making noises that come up through the floor.

Sometimes it sings the Indian Love Call and sometimes it sings Lead, Kindly Light, by Cardinal Newman,
But even then it doesn't sound human,
And sometimes it gobbles,
And the sound wibbles and wobbles,
And sometimes it snarls like a ghoul interrupted at its unholy feast,
And sometimes it just mutters like the blood going down the drain of a tub after a murderer has finished dismembering the deceased;

It cackles, it crackles, it drones, it buzzes, it chortles,
It utters words but in no tongue spoken by mortals,
Yes, its language is a mystery for evermore,
The language of whatever it is that makes the noise that comes up through the floor,
And you shiver and quiver and wonder,
What's under?

Is it banshees or goblins or leprechauns, or trolls or something?
Or pixies or vampires of lost souls or something?
What is it below?
Better not, better not know.
Don't let it upset you,
But also don't overlook the possibility that someday whatever it is that makes the noises that come up through the floor may come up through the floor and get you.

(Ogden Nash)