A Fusion Poem by Ricki Garni

TWO MEN ON A SPLIT SCREEN

This is television.

They’re twins.

The one with the moustache is really smart.

“Kierkegaard, Sartre, Sting Theory, Hegelian Dialectic”

and then

“Blah Blah Blah” –in French.

The twin without the moustache isn’t so smart.

“I’m hungry! I want some chocolate! My butt itches! I think I broke my watch when I lost it!”

But you know, it’s truly beautiful to observe and feel and articulate pain. 

He’s OK smart.

Look at him reach across the split screen and grab his brother’s moustache!

OUCH!

And now it’s right in place. He twitches his nose a little. And in just seconds he is the smart twin!

“Kierkegaard!” he says, sophisticatedly.

But it doesn’t last.

“My watch broke Hegel when I fell on it my butt landed on it, Existential.”

Meanwhile, just over the little paper clouds: chocolate.

His smooth-faced brother drives away in a chocolate car with  little puffy buttery-white cocoa smoke rings that leave a trail that disappears in the summer light.

“Yes,” says Smoothy. “All in all, an acceptable exchange.”

His heart is filled with love. Family always comes first, he says. Then chocolate. And brains, brains can help...

Slowly the chocolate steering wheel begins to melt and slowly he begins to lose control. He is hungry, and yet filled with love, he waves at his brother, he honks the horn, he speaks in French, his watch stops, he is this, he is that, he doesn’t know why.






Ricky Garni is a graphic designer who lives in Carrboro, North Carolina, USA. His work can be found in  DEFENESTRATION, MIPOESIAS, MAD SWIRL, MEDULLA, THE LEGENDARY, SHAMPOO and others.  Mr. Garni rides a bicycle called The Flying Chocolate.