'Nitgub,' said the typewriter,
and clenched the paper tight.
'Nitgub positively.
It is here in black and white.'
'Nonsense,' I said.
'I typed N-O-T-H-I-N-G;
the word of course was nothing,
simply nothing, don't you see?'
'Nothing may be what you meant,
but nitgub's what you wrote.
I like it,' said the typewriter.
'It strikes a happy note.
It has more style than nothing,
has a different sort of sound.
The colour is superior;
the flavour's nice and round.
Have you plumbed its deepest depths,
its mysteries explained?'
'All right,' I said, 'I'll take it.
Nitgub ventured, nitgub gained.'
Russell Hoban
