1. Jackio and Jill scrambled up the nil without an altitude, its inclination, to the nth. degree, calculating itself as jilted, tallied as void and abacussing the twosome with, "Why do you always ignore me?"

2. Jill and Jackio couldn't say why. They were tongue-tied, perhaps together - no one knew. Embracing their chests with their chins, they bored the dirt with their tacit alpha waves. Roaring, the dirt backslid into its chasm, unraveling their laces and leaving Jill and Jackio soleless at their own social, their own picnic.

3. Still, oh, still, their files and portfolios were full; they fed themselves what they could.

4. Jackio licked his digits, Jill smacked her folders.

5. Next, he eyeballed her ruby orals and orated, "Why're you always doing this to me? Can't you relate to my text without a virus?'

6. Jill wrinkled up her nose at his bare feet and whiffed, "Jeez! Why don't you make like the rainbow and get over it, already? By the way, how many flavors of toe-jam do you have?"

7. "Jeez, yourself! Fifty-five flavors, if you must know," Jackio replied, "But that's a click-point-fifty-five off the question which you didn't answer. The fax is, your personality is shriveled with wrinkled bytes and your chips are dipped in acid, that's why."

8. "I'm dippy, huh?" Jill said, "So what?... and while we're on subject, pass me the friggin' chips n' dip! Then, why don't you massage my tailbone until I have an out-of-the-bod experience?" - and she did a flip-flop - "Like my tailbone? Nice, isn't it?"

9. "It's bony, and a bone is a bone is a bone," Jacko sniffled, then softened with persistence as he masseused her Aladdin complex, masseusing and masseusing unto and until the second coming of Jill's inquiring mind: "What do you think about a new carpet in the chat room, Jackio?"

10. He declined to reply, kept rubbing the heat of love/hate in their yin-yang chakra, until Jill saw the sweating fog in the bottom of good, ol' Al's (Aladdin) Lamp and exclaimed, "Whe-e-e!" - while Jackio soliloquized, "Maybe I otta' sing the body erective!"

11. Stiff-legged, or maybe bowed, and in a dittying dither off-key, Jackio wandered off, looking for that which might be hidden and pushing up golgothan things in the memorial garden beside a rill (small stream) running down the hump of nil.

12. Jill, now, she looked at herself on the ground before her spirit floated down to her purse, which she opened, removing a file and began deleting a smidgen of rough edges from her program.

13. Meanwhile, she was thinking, thinking and thinking to herself, "You know, I really have spent years darkening the bags under my eyes, cankering myself with why I can't be more like other people I'm always afraid are better than I. Good, gosh gawle-e-e-e!... it felt so-o, so cozy hiding under those bags!... though maybe I should lift them and let my light shine. But just where did I leave my lighter? Wait, though, perhaps I should be careful since a part of me is a glob of spiritual gas that might explode. Here's a thought: Maybe I should break wind and flatulate my poor, sinful body down there... sort of a pneumatic flagellation, an aromatic crucifixion, you might say - but redeeming my body from what - the depravity of genes?"

14. "Oh, lawdie, lawdie! Maybe I should go on another date with my body, and I am beginning to miss Jackio."

15. She lay a-holt o' her tailbone like the jawbone of a jenny, took a valiant swing as though at punching bags, rattling her fears a little closer to the ground, then stepped into her body like a real Woman one leg at a time, and dared to haunt the atheistic presence of the man.

16. Jackio, off in the holy boneyard, decided to lie back, to recline and massage his ass with grass, though not at all to pay homage to a synonymous metaphor - nor to say that the bluegrass is more azure on the other side of the ass. With no program consciously edited for it, he, in sooth, was spread toward icon-idol-crosses he saw not far away.

17. Looking, oh, looking for the missing link, and sighing, oh sighing, he began retroflexively pinching and rotating the cute dimples in his nipples, as though milking the Krishna-Vishnu bull-cow of sensation.

18. He felt doomed from wherewithall for the pleasure he derived, thinking and thinking to himself, "I wouldn't be doing this if I was a homo sapiens of the real male species. I'll probably wind up in the high-rent ghetto of purgatory for this, and my mama is too poor to buy me out of there, man!"

19. Then, he felt hysterically tickled to play a game of reverse limbo, to position himself for an enema of soul-expungement, though he hadn't achieved the nil-zenith of enlightenment to realize that, as yet.

20. Jackio folded his bent until his bellybutton smooched his third eye - his goddam nipples wept.

21. Sanctimoniously topsy-turvy, with voyeuristic giggles, the golgothan idols looked cross-armed at his fears of the ages, with prurient icon-eyes of myth.

22. Just about that time, Jill became so lonely for her deeper self that she judoed her mirror, and strangling husks fell away, leaving present essence and ancient reminisce, with future hints and promises of core.

23. She thought, "That wasn't particularly pretty, though it really grooves that some of the best isn't necessary by demand of uncentered desire!" and she started dancing in front of her flowering self in glory.

24. Jill glanced down at her shattered mirror, then from within, reflected what she was, and gaily said, "See that?... how beautiful my feet, they and I so alive! Wait until Jackio sees me dance!... might even ask him to shake it with me! He has feet of clay... nothing wrong with clay... plenty of it where I came from. It's just that I'll have to lay down the dance-groove for Jackio's gloriously clodden hooves, that's all." If she'd only seen him at that moment!

25. Head pointed toward the nil, Jackio peered between his legs at the icon-idol-crosses while thundering, extra blood tenderized his mind.

26. The idols and he stared one another down, and/or up, until Jackio violated the skewed romance and asked, "Haven't we met somewhere before, like, in a public men's room?... or could've been at an auto de fe. After all, *autos de fe really do have such grand, Inquisatorial entertainment. But then, could've met at an ice cream social."

27. The idols proselytized, "Sh-h! Keep it down!"

28. Jackio asked, "Why, we're not in a public men's room anymore, are we?"

29. They said, "One's never sure, but more to the clickity-click of the holy mouse, nobody's supposed to know that we really don't meet anyone anywhere - ever!"

30. Again, Jackio asked 'why.'

31. "Because true meeting threatens to be real. Besides, we get an unreal thrill from judging and mocking everyone for being what they are

32. Jackio made like to speak, once more, but the idols interrupted his intended interruption with, "Don't make us cross and ask 'why' again, 'cause, well, jeez, it's the nature of true idolatry to judge, mock and dissimulate. I mean, just look at us. Even our own arms are contrary to the rest of us. By the tenth ring of Hell! - or until it's created - at least you have arms that harmonize with the rest of you part of the time, you evolutionary pervert!"

33. The Upside Down Man tried focusing his eyes on the spot where the idols' arms met the rest of them. However, tears were rilling out of his eyes up his forehead down toward the nil because the thunder of extra blood was tenderizing his mind. And if his eyes hadn'tve watered the nil, his goddam nipples would have wept! Still, he did his best, until he said, "Well, now, harmony isn't always perverted."

34. The idols scoffed, "Ba-a-a-a humbug, it isn't!"

35. Jackio couldn't resist the temptation to reply, "Say, prolong your 'ba-a-as' and you could be sheep. You haven't been cloned or sacrificed lately, have you?"

36. The icon-idols considered filing an uncivil lawsuit, but felt so insulted by such impertinent blasphemy that they retreated into silence and remained that way, looking peevish and cross.

37. Jackio continued peering between his legs until he experienced a pneumatic jazzing-up of enema-relief... exhaled the rest.

38. In dizzy ecstasy, he popped his mug out of his ass - almost - and toddled in fifth gear up the nil until the rill ran along at his feet.

39. He fell to his shank-bones and plunged his blood-thundering head to the bottom of the rill, raised his dripping noggin and asked, "Why do the idols get a thrill from judging and mocking everyone for being what they are?"

40. The rill looked unusually sober, then responded: "Spiritually, 'why' sometimes is the most worthless question in the universe. Why must there be a why for everything?"

41. Jackio pondered then mused: "Well, in the spirit of a famous LSD-head's last words: 'Why not'?"

42. "Oh dear! You humans sometimes are so stubborn!" sighed the rill, then resigned to its role, went merrily off on a dittying fling with lyrics that said: "I won't address the philosophy of 'why not'. Why should I? And as for the icon-idol-crosses, don't let them deceive you."

43. Once more, Jackio ventured, "Why?"

44. Feeling really quite cheerful, now, the rill ignored Jackio's latest reiteration of the sometimes-unproductive question and chimed, "Because each of the icon-crosses hides behind what it really is:

Just remember

to keep a finger

of protest in Their eye

until you die,

Try **your best to render

transparent Their mask

And if They ask,

tell Them that's

your sovereign task.

45. Jackio said, "Huhm-m. Come to think of it, mama did give me a crown."

46. "That's the spirit!" even more cheerfully chirped the rill.

47. Jackio, nonetheless, persisted, "Yeah, but why am I like I am? Is there better?"

48. Unfazed, the rill gently chuckled, "Foolish boy! Can't you see in your reflection in me that you and everyone are what you are?"

49. Just then, Jackio saw a glint of pure sunlight reflected from the bottom of the rill. It'd truly been a day for bottoms!

50. With bottomless insight, the rill went on, "Do you see it?'

51. Jackio said, "Maybe."

52. The rill continued, "Keep looking deep. Keep seeing within you, that you are you and everyone that is, ever has been or ever will be, and that you'll know - if you will - when and what better is when it comes, and it can be yours."

53. "When will that happen?" asked Jackio.

54. "Often, when your legs have the strength to give out, part way down the hill and you have to push your tricycle to the bottom where you can dare to dream and live the unspeakable; besides, you sometimes have to run silent to go deep," crooned the rill.

55. "Is that the ultimate or god?"

56. "No, it's the unspeakable. Not only that, but you never know if god really walks the game in this dream," said the rill.

57. "How about the viruses? Will they still be around?" asked Jackio.

58. The rill put her ditty on fermata (hold) and sighed, "I'm afraid so. Some of them will attempt to destroy in trying to survive; some can help render transparent Their mask; others can be forgiven. And as aggravating as they are, some of them can help gas you up to pedal your tricycle through your unspeakable - oh, yes, I know you still ride a tricycle. Still, none of the viruses really matters. Bear the burden, laugh, toil, weep and rest in the joy of raw being until you go to your beyond. That's my advice."

59. Jackio said, "Really?"

60. The rill winked merrily, again chuckled: "Sure! Why not?" - and suddenly ran away down the nil until it disappeared from sight.

61. Jackio was so startled by the rill's abrupt departure that he lost his balance and went cartwheeling head over heels down the nil until he hit bottom and broke his crown, which was a little crooked on his head, anyway.

62. Jill soon came tumbling after, and behind them finally loomed a real hill.

63. Jill looked up at Jackio with a dazed, non-salacious leer and exclaimed, "Wow! That was some picnic, wasn't it?... though I still think my tailbone is nice!"

64. Jackio said, "Well, maybe. And the picnic? ... yes, quite. Whad'ya do while I was gone?"

65. Jill said, "Well, I did some judo, some dancin' and somehow groovin' on a little more of what I am... real nice... just not sure I understand what, though."

666. Jackio replied, "That's okay, because full understanding isn't always met. I must say, however, that you look quite engaging for such a tomboy," - and he placed a lei around her neck.

67. Jill breathed, "Oh, Jackio! A wreath of dandelions!"

68. Jackio said, "Yes, a wreath of dandelions - a delightfully unholy rosary in stubborn worship of what they are, like you and I are what we are. And I'm not sure there's anything better, though we'll know - if we will - what and when better is when we find and need it, and it'll be ours within ourselves."

69. Jill looked a little surprised at his credo, then cried "How groovin'!... perfect for discussion over crumpets and tea at two! And we can read ourselves in tea leaves. Whad'ya say?"

70. Jackio said, "Why not? We can use the dandelions for tea."

71. Jill wrinkled up her nose at that idea as she earlier had over Jackio's fifty-five toe-jam flavors, then averred, "Well, maybe... might be good for us... all those minerals and vitamins. Shall we take our portfolios, files and texts with us?"

72. Jackio said, "Our texts?... sure. Don't worry about the viruses. Some of them can serve a useful purpose; hell, some can be forgiven and others of them aggravatin' mutha's can help us pedal our trikes through our dreams. And maybe we can protect ourselves from the rest of them with a potion of dandelion tea - that is, if you can boil water without a recipe!"

73. Jill murmured, "Why, Jackio! You naughty, dirty, little rat, you!" - and they looked into each other, for a moment, before bending to pick up their soles, portfolios, files and texts.

74. And Jackio's broken crown? He looked up from his groovin' self-gathering and saw one of the crosses wearing it as a cracked bracelet on one arm, in the distant mists of myth.

75. As for the rill, well, after all, they'd need water for tea, and the rill suddenly appeared as a living stream along beside them as Jackio and Jill left hand in hand.

76. And they were found sitting across from and looking at one another over crumpets and dandelion tea; unspeakable, having borne the burden, laughed, toiled, wept and rested in the joy of raw being before going to their beyond.

77. Jill's tailbone, her feet, and Jackio's nipples were as they'd always been, their tricycles still in the front yard.

78. In the distance, still in the mists of myth, the stream was cheerfully, steadily and slowly singing the foundations away from the icon-idol-crosses in a ditty of a paradox-riddle which will never be solved...

79. ... for the riddle is a riddle is a riddle...

* "Auto de fes": Burning "heretics" at the stake often were spectacles of public "entertainment" during the Inquisition.

** "Try your best to render transparent Their mask, if They ask, tell Them that's your sovereign task": Paraphrase of a quote borrowed from the poet, David D'Zormier.