Sleep that doth harbour a dream of dread, Whence come the fingers that beckoned and led My dream-stung soul from my canopied bed-- Whither dost take me, ere I am dead? Beyond the skull-grinning mid-March moon Over the phosphorous-lit lagoon Out past the darkest pits of the night, Fast thru the stars in this evil flight; Lead thee me out past the rim of space, Show me that ravenous, pain-black face, Marmok, whose myrmidons ever are questing For souls who wander at nite, unresting. Then shall I know an ultimate bliss Tasting the fury of that cosmic kiss, Whilst my earth-cloak lies limply on the floor To waken and gibber forevermore. * * * * * What is the dim monstrosity that shimmers across the stars, what hand is that to cradle planets, earth and mars. What misshapen gargantuan of nebulous formed flesh, hurls out its flood of darkness, the systems to enmesh. What is it walks across the universes chanting cosmic choruses with endless verses--what thing unutterable has visited our Earth long years ago, and now, tonite, returns, in the shadows lurking glow. What ancient fear is with me, cold and terrible? Is that the shape of man upon the constellations, blotting out the light--or something gasping in hideous delight, plucking at the planets in insanity, at play, causing suns to boil like cauldrons, meteors to sing upon their way with mournful voices, lost ghosts upon lonely trails--wailing--wailing. Is tonight our rendezvous with the Cosmos Thing, the Colossus bigger than Andromeda that sits upon the throne of space--or are these fantasies upon my aged eyes? HADES [Illustration] Upon the shores of molten seas stand men, stand men alone, And down below, in the molten flow, in the waves that cry and moan Are women bare with flaming hair, whose passions have no surcease. And in the air, midst the scarlet glare, are more who will never know Peace. THE BEST WAYS TO GET AROUND I don't mean socially; I mean off the Earth and between the planets. There are a few really good ways, as invented by perspiring authors in science-fiction magazines. And if I miss any, which is extremely doubtful, remember that I'm writting from memory, that I hadn't read _all_ the scientifiction magazines from 1926 and on, and that I am not going to go researching through the tremendous stacks of old scientifiction magazines that I now have in my possession. Now, what DO I mean by THE BEST WAYS TO GET AROUND? Briefly, by the word BEST, I mean so pseudo-logical that you could almost leave off the "pseudo". See? (No)