THE GRINDSTONE OF GOD: A Fable

By any other name The House That Jack Built falls. Flat. Despite a come-on opener where fox and horse draw lots to determine which shall slay the other for food: horse loses and fox goes off to borrow the sorcerer's knife. One thing leads to another until--unrhythmically--""Smith, smith,/ Give me your tongs/ In order to draw the beaver's teeth/ To make a milk bucket/ To milk the hare/ To feed the sun's son/ So he will drive the moon's oxen/ And draw the grindstone of God/ To sharpen the knife/ To slay the horse/ To nourish me, the fox."" Whereupon Smith complies and the chain reacts. . . all the way back to the horse whom they prop up and bring the knife down on so clumsily that it buries itself in the wood. ""The horse was frightened and ran away and the poor fox stood there wondering what to do."" A Siberian fable.