That Mystery Floating Alongside

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  “The side of the ship made an opaque belt of shadow on the darkling glassy shimmer of the sea. But I saw at once something elongated and pale floating very close to the ladder. Before I could form a guess a faint flash of phosphorescent light, which seemed to issue suddenly from the naked body of a man, flickered in the sleeping water with the elusive, silent play of summer lightning in a night sky. With a gasp I saw revealed to my stare a pair of feet, the long legs, a broad livid back immersed right up to the neck in a greenish cadaverous glow. One hand, awash, clutched the bottom rung of the ladder. He was complete but for the head. A headless corpse! The cigar dropped out of my gaping mouth with a tiny plop and a short hiss quite audible in the absolute stillness of all things under heaven. At that I suppose he raised up his face, a dimly pale oval in the shadow of the ship’s side. But even then I could only barely make out down there the shape of his black-haired head. Howev...

An Original Poem

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In the stain glass village by the stain glass sea;

Up the stain glass steps beyond the stain glass tree, 

The stain glass stoa by the stain glass tower

Under stain glass sky with a stain glass glour, 

Glistens in the gloaming for a stain glass hour.


The stain glass fishers from the stain glass shore

And the stain glass merchant from his stain glass store

With the stain glass cobbler wearing stain glass shoes

in the stain glass pub gossip stain glass news.

When the stain glass sun sets in a low’ring creep, 

The stain glass village nestles for a stain glass sleep.

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