A
F T E R W O R D
My father was a hatmaker, at which trade the man made marvels of
money, and thank goodness for it too, for was I not a costly child, mad as the
hatter I myself was not? But then I was deemed delivered from dementia and,
deprived of my occupation in therein (a lad accused of listening to that which
could not be heard), cast about for what to make of me––Gordon!––and
thus of my days (as, of course, and solely in the manner of, same).
Years passed.
Oh boy, what a lot of years did.
Until there came to pass a day when I commenced labor upon the
fashioning of a hat.
My father had made many hats.
I, his son, would make––are you with me?––just the one.
It is upon my head everywhere, and everywhere I am I am told how
terrific a hat it is.
It is––please believe––on this account that I have taken to
my not taking it––the hat––off. Were you, therefore, to succeed in
making your way into my house, you would, at any turn, find me hated, behatted,
and so forth.
Were the very Queen to come, I, Gordon––however overcome with
delight, however riven with respect––would remain as Her Highness had found
me––under the hat, as it were, listening.
What would I hear?
Other than mere minor royalty speaking?
Oh no, good reader of the foregoing––better, as you are now
aware, for one to harken to––and to remove one’s hat for––the One.
True. Monarch––yet another mad ruler of the One. True. Realm.
Hey, that’s Lock Lish is sitting here singling out from among the
enchanted singers in and out of the world.
Guys ’n’ Girls in Charge of Words ’n’ Play.
And can you feature it?––that it was me, that it was I, they
came shuffling on over to and went ahead and locked him all up!
Did you hear?
No treatment, no restraint, needed.
Speech.
Speech as speech.
The song.
Ensorcellment itself can, in Norman Lock, be heard.
In other words, in other forms, that which cannot can.
You bet––my hat is all of the way off to you-know-whom, not to
mention to His Unsourceable Frenchiness as well.
But what do I, Gordon––Gordon!––know?
Am I not crazier than even than Lock, don’t you see?
Which can’t be nay small business—on or off the page.