A pianist dreams that he's hired by a wrecking company to <br />ruin a piano with his fingers . . . <br /> On the day of the piano wrecking concert, as he's <br />dressing, he notices a butterfly annoying a flower in his window <br />box. He wonders if the police should be called. Then he thinks <br />maybe the butterfly is just a marionette being manipulated by <br />its master from the window above. <br /> Suddenly everything is beautiful. He begins to cry. <br /> <br /> Then another butterfly begins to annoy the first butterfly. <br />He again wonders if he shouldn't call the police. <br /> But, perhaps they are marionette-butterflies? He thinks <br />they are, belonging to rival masters seeing whose butterfly can <br />annoy the other's the most. <br /> <br /> And this is happening in his window box. The Cosmic <br />Plan: Distant Masters manipulating minor Masters who, in turn, <br />are manipulating tiny butterfly-Masters who, in turn, are <br />manipulating him . . . A universe webbed with strings! <br /> Suddenly it is all so beautiful; the light is strange . . . <br />Something about the light! He begins to cry . . .<br /><br />Russell Edson<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-marionettes-of-distant-masters/
