Perspective

How the Gallows Songs came to be

Once there were eight merry kings, who lived. Their names were so and so. Who has got a name anyway? One is called. One day though the merry kings talked to each other, like kings talk to one another. "The world is without salt, let us get some salt!", the second said. "And what if it were pepper?", opined the sixth. "Who knows the new?", asked the fifth. "Me", said the seventh. "What do you call it?", said the first. "The subterranean.", retorted the seventh. "The left, the right, the inbetween, the nightly, the square of the non-sensual above the three sides of the sensual." "And how to get there?", asked the eighth. "The one-armed cross without head and the base above the angle.", said the seventh. "Thus the gallows.", said the fourth. "Esto", spoke the third. And the others repeated "Esto", which means Yes! And the eight merry kings gathered their garments and let their fool hang them.
The fool though was immediately swallowed by the Spirit of Oblivion.

Christian Morgenstern