[Newspoetry] Nature (after Russell Edson)

[Joe Futrelle]

Nature
(after Russell Edson)

An ape is reading the newspaper.  In the chair opposite him his wife
is knitting an ape sweater.  There is a fire in the place where fires
are made.  Above the mantlepiece, a portrait of the apes in ape paint.

I am bringing the ape his slippers.  Here, ape, I have brought you
your slippers as is our habit, I stand before him and say.

I wish you would not stand, the ape complains, it is not natural for a
man to stand.

It is as natural as it is for an ape to play the violin, or swing from
a tree, I reply.

I simply will not have this in my house, the ape shouts.

Let the boy stand, his wife says, putting down her knitting, remember
when you were a boy and they would not let you slither on the ground
or fly from branch to branch.

And look what I've become, responds the ape.

I do not answer because I know that I must stay in this house, so that
I may lie with her when he is away at his ape work in the ape city.

I am reading the newspaper ...

--
Joe Futrelle
Editor-within-chief,
Newspoetry dot com