His filing system
Was cosmosophy
In action:

What began
As a
Single

Double drawer
Filing cabinet
And a
Card table

Exploded
Into

Eight two drawer
And four
Four drawer
Files

Two desks and
A dining room
Table

And papers --
Papers,
Everywhere!

Was it
"The Big Bang"?

Or was it
"The Steady State"?

Or both?

Or neither?

The matter
Of the clutter
Began
To prey

Upon
His mind --

He searched
For files
He needed:

And could
Find them
Nowhere

He pulled
Files out
At random

And found
Their contents

Undecipherable

When his
Landlord
Came

To collect
The writer's
Overdue
Rent

He found
A bloated
Corpse

Crushed
Beneath
A four
Drawer

File

And

A file
Folder
Containing

An apparent
Suicide
Note
Beside

The dead
Body

Robert Randolph Medcalf, Jr., was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1949, where he grew up and spent most of his early adulthood. He is a 52 year old, divorced, father of three, and grandfather of eight. His first published story, "Catapilla," appeared in 1976, and his first published poem, "A.L.U.," appeared in 1978. His previous publications in Strange Horizons can be found in our Archive.