III

Division of Labor
     I shall watch you as you work, and you can look back upon me as I eat.

Envy
     Oh, God, those hot dogs smell so good, and I only have this capon for dinner!

Employer
     What's this, only eight hours of work? You think I only spend money eight hours a day?

Executioner
     You know, our kind have feelings too. I would not do it gratis.

The Boss
     I give the orders, so you should pay me; you pay me, so I get to give the orders.

Psychoanalysis
     This dream reminded me of my dead mother. Please, does this signify incest or necrophilia?

Bedbug
     Oh, I know all about people! The things I could tell you!

Cactus
     Just be well-defended! Look how man recoils from me! He even ends up serving me.

Peacock
     I don't wear this for show. It's on account of the females.

A Philosophical Caterpillar
     Get out of here with your humans! Such relativists! Creatures that eat everything? As far as I am concerned, I only acknowledge the leaves of the buckthorn.

Crane
     That is to say, I am an individualist from principle.

Bee
     Why do I have this stinger? In the name of the hive.

Fly
     Bad times, these. But during the war, girls, there were the most beautiful corpses!

Earthworm in the Flowerpot
     What do you know of solitude? But I, I who am both male and female...Ah, the loneliness!

Match
     Look, I am an eternal flame!

Mycobacterium tuberculosis
     Tuberculosis? What's that?

Caterpillar
     Sex? I'm surprised it comes up so much. In my opinion it's vastly overrated. For instance, I myself have no conception of such foolishness. I'm far too rational for that.

A Digging Mole
     That blue speck on the horizon? That's nothing. They call it Mont Blanc.

Snake on a Branch
     Go any way the wind blows? No, but you have to go with the flow sometimes.

Weathervane
     Today it's blowing from the north-north-east and that is that!

Last Leaf on the Tree
     Long live life!

LN 20 November 1932