back / next / Clever’s Road 4

The beggars entered the mill and encountered the Miller, a woman so ancient that only garments identified her sex. The Miller’s chin hairs were grizzled, her nose over-long, her eyes rheumy, and her pate near bald.

She fed grain in at a fixed point, the mill-stone's hub. From the spinning circumference there sifted flour for bread. Pale dust choked the air. Machinery thumped and crashed. No voice could be heard in that racket. By hand signs the children were made to know they must work for bread.


Fox Wisdom: Bad Lord Judas decrees — humans get bread by noise and thunder, by sweat and soil. Good Lord Jesus allots us a bit of butter.

 

back / next

Clever’s Road 4: GB0051