101 in 1001 {II}: 012 watch duck soup [completed 07.09.10]
brooklyn purples under a goose-egg moon,
tugboats frog-march garbage past the windows,
and sweet freon sophisticates the room.
i stumble into a crush on harpo,
snick-sheared emancipator of pockets;
while i fantasize about greasepaint drag,
i have a soft spot for wordless tempests.
the gentle entropy of trading hats
flows into brother groucho's best lessons:
a uniform's no more than a sight gag,
no good will come of sustained reflection,
and most anything can be taken back.
knowing all this, the cat gnaws my ankle.
patriots leave capitols in shambles.
Now here is some Marxist doctrine I can get behind- but does it work on paper?
ReplyDeletedebatable, i think, what with slant rhyme and galloping pentameter (i began with and abandoned trochees). this thing came together because i promised myself i'd write a line each time i rode the subway, so i did a lot of whipping the extant draft from my pocket and pressing it against a tree or MTA map or salaryman to scribble out the next ten syllables.
ReplyDeleteas a newcomer to the marx brothers, i was shocked and pleased to learn that my fondess for snipping off my sister's ramen noodles as she tried to lift them to her mouth had such a classic pedigree.
Your brilliance is only surpassed by your genius.
ReplyDelete“For it is not metres, but a metre-making argument that makes a poem a poem—a thought so passionate and alive that like the spirit of a plant or an animal it has an architecture of its own, and adorns nature with a new thing. The thought and the form are equal in the order of time, but in the order of genesis the thought is prior to the form. The poet has a new thought; she has a whole new experience to unfold; she will tell us how it was with her, and all mankind will be the richer in her fortune.”
Or:
“Married. I can see you right now in the kitchen, bending over a hot stove. But I can’t see the stove.
As for the noodles, Game recognize Game, partna.
you must've been vaccinated with a phonograph needle.
ReplyDeletei can't get over rufus t. firefly; it could be the greatest name ever.
Most anything can be taken back.
ReplyDeleteApologetic Addendum: Is this palindrome yours or what?
ReplyDeleteEd, I saw Harpo Marx ram Oprah W. aside.
...and my dad's name is emperor ed. coincidence?
ReplyDelete