from _Fragmentary Ekphrases Based On Paintings Made By Monkeys_

[Tempera on paper; by Congo, a chimpanzee]


“The most disturbing thing about monkey painting is that it is beautiful…”
—Harriet Swain, “Dissent of Man on Ape Art,” Times Higher Education (30 May 2007)


It would be a mock epic
entitled The Depths
                                 of Macchu Pikachu.
It would be
                      delirium’s coral
harboring
                    unknown
symbionts of sanity.
                                       It would be
      a raucous rendition :
                     I’ll break
a leg if you
rend me your ear.
                     It
would be what one
                                   would call
beauty
             brightening
within the eye
                               of the disturber.