3 commenters walk into the magic realists bar
the magic realist is behind the bar pulling phantasma gorikle drinks
the magic realist dripping words
in his minds nest hes hatching plots
they emerge barely inklings
growing on what he feeds them
bits of conversation
snatches of songs
paintings
dialogue from shakespeare
borges and neruda
cartoons and reveries
oh lovely little fat ideas they become
before leaving the mindnest to become storys
fully fledged storys flying about
the first commenter is a sychophantic yesman
oh esteban he says to the magic realist
oh i dig your stuff
(of course all this is in spanish, in fact
last night i met cecilia cee on a mistral plane
and she has kindly pre-translated the spanish
into this approximate inglish)
yeah ? says the magic realist
then drink this
the first drinks the drink
mmmm tastes like …
suddenly
he sees
the absurdity of the magic realists work
useless informationless waste of fucking time he mutters
poetry! he spits
why did i read your books?
i learnt nothing
i gained nothing
and all his envy scorn and bile erupt like lava
he drains the drink and stamps off
next comes the second commenter
hes a mix of wag and idiot and philistine and “straight”
(los ” straightos”)
hey he says rudely to the magic realist
gimme a fuckin’ drink
and by the way
your books are schlock and rubbish
ok senor says the magic realist
please drink this lovely beverage
the second commenter sips his brew
mmmm tastes like…
suddenly he sees the wonder
suddenly he sees the sheer wonder
the brilliant elusive genius
the diffused plots
the archaic and arcane words
that such a writer who writes for love
not for fear or favour
a writer who deep beneath that artificial veneer
is swimming through life with an open mind
catching everything
for his stories
and hes dazzled by this hitherto unseen light
he stumbles out in a daze
the third commenter neither loves
nor loathes the magic realist
he reads and thinks
he understands some
he empathizes with some
he sympathizes with some
he agrees with some
he disagrees with some
he makes pithy interesting comments
and he pisses off without wearing out his welcome
here says the magic realist
take this
he hands him a gram of angelfruit
no thanks says the third commenter
im still surfing the net
the magic realist nods
a customer is waving to him
the customer has three hands
he talks in pink words which come out of his mouth like ballooons
hes drinking liquid hydrogen with fairy bomb chasers
hes six feet two feet half an inch by inch
hes green with blue pointilistic pixels
the magic realist sighs
all in a days work he says
all in a days work