About a decade ago, I worked on a tabletop roleplaying game titled "Cranium Rats," in which players played the three mental-spiritual aspects or entities fighting over control of people's actions, or parts of their psyche. These three aspects had been Water, Dirty, and Rat.
As part of the game text, I came up with the following vignettes. Mythic poetry? Biblical parables? Fables in the form of poetic prose? I'll let you decide.
Legends of the Fall:
And Man was cast from the Garden of Eden, Man which was created from the Dirt, who shall toil the Dirt, and to the Dirt shall one day return.
Man was tempted by one, one was in turn seduced by two others. Man was seduced by Woman, whose name was Life. Procreation tempted Man.
Woman was tempted by two. Woman was tempted by a fruit, whose juice was knowledge. Woman was tempted by Snake, whose name was Beast*.
And God cast the three out, Man, Woman and Snake.
And Snake and Woman keep tempting Man.
And Snake and Man tempt Woman.
And Man and Woman tempt Snake, into coming and tempting them once more.
*And yet Snake, or Beast is Rat.
Legends of the World:
And so it came to pass that the Illusion was created. Some called it Maya, some called it The World, some have recently called it The Matrix. The lie is being maintained by three forces, they strive to encompass all of creation but they are currently held in check by the other two, who will not relinquish control so easily.
Where did they come from, no one knows, who created them, no one knows. Who knows of them?
Very few, at the table where people are reading this paper, probably only one will, we call him Enlightened for that.
Who are we?
Enlightened.
Who are we?
You.
Legends of the Child:
When a child is born, his body is soft, so soft that for the first week he can clench his feet. His skull is also soft in the beginning, and in burrows the Rat.
The Rat: perhaps an idea, perhaps a concept, perhaps a fourth-dimension entity that is squid-like in look and Lovecraftian in outlook.
From that moment and till its death, the Rat is part of the child, teen, adult, elder. When the Person it inhabits dies, so does the Rat.
The Rat has vested interest in the well-being of the person.
The Rat has an even greater vested interest in the well-being of Rat.
Such is Rat, and such were always Rat's tales, even when he was called Raven.
Legends of the Moon:
A quiet sea, overseen by the moon. Underneath the moon, a ship rides the waves. The ship is sinking fast, a hole breached in its hull. The sailors are shouting, torchlight dances merrily on the waves of an indifferent sea.
In the tricky light small forms can be seen swarming out of the ship. Out of the ship and into the salty water of the sea. These are Rats.
Rats on a sinking ship, escaping into an endless sea, in the middle of nowhere.
Legends of Wrath:
And the Jews were a troubled lot, so their Rabbi came up with a plan. Gathering the earth he constructed a mannequin, the Golem. Into the Golem’s empty head he delivered a small Rat. For animals are God’s own Truth.
And the Golem protected the Jews.
And the Golem ran amuck.
None could stop the Golem, for it was mighty, and it feared for itself, protecting itself.
Protecting Golem. Protecting Rat.
Till from the heavens rain poured down on Old Prague.
The Golem melted, the Rat drowned.
And Truth was no more.
Check out my latest posts:
- Liquid Steem Rewards are Here - Math Time!
- Silent Origins - Poetic prose.
- The Empty House(I) - A poem.
- The Empty House (II) - Poem and poetic rule unlearning.
Art and flair courtesy of @PegasusPhysics
The image used is The Golem by Mikoláš Aleš, and is public domain.
© Guy Shalev 2007.