Purloined

"Not altogether a fool," said G., "but then he's a poet, which I take to be only one remove from a fool."

E.A. Poe pokes fun at himself, at fellow artisans, at his trade. This little insider's jab struck my fancy. Like an embedded meta-pun. 

Pioneer of the short story, designer of the literary template, Poe and his contemporaries like Hawthorne, Melville, James...lobbied for parable-like levels of pensive provocation. A short story can and should be "read at one sitting." 

Fragmentation was thought to be a fatal blow to experience. But is not the short story a fragment embodied? 

From start to finish, tunnel your vision, stop the dog-earing and commit until the final full stop. 

Become a poet. "Make a place to sit down. / Sit down. Be quiet." 

Become a fool.

Happy Menocal watercolors are happy indeed.