from _Fragmentary Ekphrases Based On Paintings Made By Monkeys_

[Drawing; by Alpha, a chimpanzee]


Picture a sign-
   ature so tense,
so wiggly
      in its own
seismic density
      that it seems,
willy-nilly,
to want to
    suture itself
to itself,
  to put itself
sous rature
    ad absurdum;
         perhaps
  it’s imper-
sonating
    an asemic
palimpsest,
         the EKGs of
  anxious
          etymologies
 that fallaciously
     trace
“rhythm”
     from “algorithm,”
“taut”
from “tautology”