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Pharmaceutical Funnies


by John Olson


Dracula enters the pharmacy looking sad but hopeful. The pharmacist pulls a sonnet out of his thumb and hands it to him.
       This is a novel by Bugs Bunny.
       Each page is a revelation.
       The sun crawls through the sky like a wounded animal. The concept of measure labors to create a form capable of humanoid intervention. Rabbits with hands. And feet.
       Pronouns of palpable affiliation.
       In a grammar of dots and colors, there are no limits to objective space or an objective world.
       The definition declares the essence, the word signifies the definition.
       Cinnamon elevates the flavor of thyme.
       Heidegger's nihilism is obliterated by Blondie's optimism.
       Dagwood takes as long of a bath as he wants.
       Dilbert becomes an astronaut.
       Dennis the Menace starts a meth lab in the Ozarks.
       Bugs Bunny wonders why people are so obsessed by Harry Potter. The metaphysical relation of the self with the other begins with the desire for the infinite. Unconditional courage is not a virtue. Resistance to adversity is only a virtue when it is exercised in conjunction with what is proper to resist and what is not.
       Eh, what's up doc? Don't take life too seriously. You'll never get out alive.
       Bugs believes his novel is infinitely better than Harry Potter and will change the world. The cartoons he once starred in are no longer popular, but he remains undaunted.
       He returns to his novel.
       Dracula returns home with a filled prescription. Vials of morphine. Elixirs of dark, syrupy consistency. Contusions of the moon. Contrast.
       Dracula waves a wand.
       The present ambushes the future. He is immortal. He is pale. He rises from a coffin.
       The head is native to the neck.
       It is snowing.
       Phantoms of reason push at the castle door.
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