Harpo, Groucho, Zeppo, Chico, Jethro, and Ellie Mae

The French tried it for years
and, I don’t think

all that well.
You can invent

Dada and Surrealism,
issue manifestos

to your coeur’s content,
but, then you have to write it.

Render it somehow.
You have to paint it.

It’s a bitch,
ain’t it?

Eventually, you have to fulfill
your promises

and I just don’t think they did.
I think we did.

We are the world’s best Surrealists.
You know why?

There is never any “knowing why.”
You know what there is?
The Marx Brothers,
The Beverly Hillbillies,

The Lebowskis, both sizes.
Granny, Jane Hathaway

Mr. Drysdale, and smoking
fucking crawdads.

Professor Wagstaff,
that’s American Surrealism

and I rest my case.

–January 25, 2018