Count Stat Counterstat

Made up on the fly by overly handsy talkers. What're they selling? I always wander. But I don't even have to wonder when I hear change jingling, but I don't have to tell you what it means, about everything, or anything; two butts meeting, the perfection of a coconut, and ah the fronds. Is Jing Ling a Chinese name, because I swear I knew, or knew of one once. "Never heard of him", the proprietor says glancing up at and yet past me, in smooth yard precision. This world is a shiv, and there are more than four quadrants and the odd bisecti to defend yourself and yours against, and our ears don't prick up and into alert like they once did, and the hair doesn't stand up on the back of your neck, and your gut only cries out for things, you never should have eaten at all; so we never learn what a gut feeling is, for being full.