BALLET* 

         With a trippety sidelong shiffle he saddles up 
behind her and takes the lingersoft armwight in his 
fingers in gentle lofting:  and she on leglinger, toesharp 
to the floor, spins once one way and again the other way, 
while he, slickly loosing, gaming and gaining her again 
with a small smack of flesh, lowers, levers, lovers his 
nosethrills, snuffs her knocker, smuffs her chaps and 
snaffles her neck, her meekthrottle tundrel, in all true 
ruth:  while she, calfcowly, lowers her eyebogs, her 
ayebids, her i.o.u. beds, her bugnose, her bagcheeks, her 
beetlechin, down to her warm pollen brostle: then she 
twists away suddenly, winding willowly to thwart and sunder 
his grip on her frips, sending wide his gropes, her grapes, 
in the fair wind of her wanderlist so throstledown that he 
cannot grasp:  but see, he follows her, swift! and she spans, 
spins, spanish pigtopwhirl, then stops, afraid, her feet 
jittering with hard toethuds as she waits .... until he, 
behandhind again, fambles her hip with one hand, wrestling 
her wrist with the other hand and binds her becking, 
bucking, back:  her freelag leaving the floor and lifting 
higher, higher, Ohigher! whoops! ... her wode frails 
flittering, her weed frills floating, her thighthrills 
tittering and tightlights streaking ... 

         The audience enjoys this immensely and considers 
that according to the rules of the art their performance 
is not all that bad ... 

                                    Clap  clap  clap  clap clap 
                                    clap  clap  clap  clap  clap 
                                    clap  clap  clap  clap  clap 
  

___________________________
* SOLSTICE (1969) was edited from Cambridge by John Cook & Graham Swift, with assistance from Brian Morse (who is also credited for the design and production). Morse was one of the four contributors, along with Morris Cox, Alan Tucker, and T.R. Glover, to FORMAT, and that is most likely the explanation for Cox’s inclusion in SOLSTICE 9 - a very rare appearance in a literary magazine outside of FORMAT or WORLD REVIEW. Of the seven pieces by Cox in the issue, ‘Ballet’ is the only one that is not included already in this FlashPøint selection, or in GOGMAGOG. - BH/03