- from Chuang Tsu -
Shu was emperor of the ocean to the south.
The ruler of the northern one was Hu.
The land between was governed by one with no mouth,
who provided a rendezvous site for the two.
Chaos was the name of the silent third.
Together the three of them made the best of friends.
Chaos communicated through gestures, not words,
the prized tokens on which friendship depends.
Hu and Shu marveled at his hospitality
and together discussed how they might repay it.
Poor Chaos knew naught of reality,
lacking orifices with which to assay it.
So day by day they dug one at each of his ends
for seeing, hearing, eating and for breath.
By the end of the seventh day he’d met his death.
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