Dr.
Labyrinth and the Preserving Machine
In the event of atom bombs
The destruction of Roman Society,
Dr. Labyrinth commissioned the Preserving Machine,
Which turned whole printed scores into smart rat-like animals
Cunning for survival, so that music could survive into the next age
He filled the woods with composition beasts
But then they evolved weird and changed
The wagner beast killed and ate the schubert beast
The bach beast grew poisoned spines and stung Dr. Labyrinth
We caught it in a jar, then fed it back into the machine
The resultant score was loathsome and grotesque
Dejected I drove down the hill in darkness
It's weeks later that I feel the rattle
Somewhere between my ears, then a terrible headache
Begins and blows open my head — in my last moment of lucidity
I hear a grand tempest of horns and kettledrums
—
—
* This is distilled from "The Preserving Machine" by Philip K. Dick
in the June 1953 Magazine Of Fantasy & Science Fiction.
The last 4 lines are my own invention.