The effect was always going to be lesser 
  than noise. We had just
  never counted on what our fathers and their fathers
  had always had.
In the midst of which, this ingenious system.
Shot through with the bibulousness
  common to indolent men.
And so many of the rubber
  stamps were lost
  the office shut down. For lack of ink the county
  foundered.
What were we all doing then, to further the endurance.
They all counseled recursion, but we desisted.
They gave us shadows to lie in, but we had our swards.
A bit of the ineffable on punch-cards.
Feeding the auspicious.
Though truly there was no monster even in the minds of frightened
  boys.
Even in nightmares it was nothing more than a shirt on a stick
  waggled in the dark.
The moaning the whoosh of one's own blood.
Unbearably brown were her eyes. I
  could not support the weight of her breaths.
The leaden cup a-brim with gall.
Swallowed and unsullied.
The greater and the lesser
  noise devoured us. When we were least
  wont to attenuate.
The pleas were met with unmerciful cruelty.
There is no
  other way but this road.
No other shame but to know.