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| In Norton Juster’s book, The Phantom Tollbooth, The Terrible Trivium is the demon of useless tasks and misspent energy. The Trivium lives at the base of the Mountains of Ignorance. |
There was a time once when all
the bored little children came
to me first, and I taught them
how, with but one delicate
needle, they could chip away
at the face of Ignorance.
I taught them to move mountains.
I gave tweezers to humbugs
and taught them to move deserts
from here to here, grain by grain.
And drop by drop I watched as
the fearsome watch-dog drained my
swimming pool with a syringe,
only to fill it again.
In my home I have thousands
of boxes and bookshelves filled
with the precious remnants of
my former glory. There are
yellow number two pencils
sharpened to stubs, ten metric
tons of unbent paper clips,
doodle-work masterpieces,
and my personal favorite;
the literature. I have
volumes of nothing but notes
passed around classrooms, ideal
married names written over
and over and … But details,
details! That wasn’t my point.
What I wished to say was: I’ve
not added anything new
to my collection in years.
It seems that all the children
want for themselves now is sleep;
thoughtless, dreamless, ceaseless sleep.
Sleeping children weary me.
Likewise, their sluggish spirits
do not seek active vices.
I, the demon of “useless”
have become, myself, useless.
So, from this ever napping
generation, I retire.
Children, remember me when,
drunk with too much sleep, you lie
wide awake for hours, bored.
-M.
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