After Russel Edson
By Matthew Simmons


Russell Edson is sick—sick, you see—of me writing poems about him and has, therefore, gone out and got himself an injunction or a restraining order or something against me to make me stop. His lawyer—all decked out like Mrs. Astor's horse—is Mrs. Astor's horse, and holds up some printed-out copies of my writing about him.


"Have you read this," the gussied-up-for Sunday mare says, "it’s like he's after Russell Edson. It's like he's always coming after Russell Edson."


The judge is a black sheep of the three bags full variety, and weighs the evidence very carefully.


I have missed the court date because my house is on fire and my neighbors—professional birthday clowns one and all—are handing me bucket after bucket of confetti, which only seems to be making everything much, much worse...

Russell Edson supposedly used to jokingly refer to himself as 'Mr. Little Prose Poem.' That's kind of weird. His poems are also weird. In the above picture he is documented in midst of mental correspondence with a neckless giraffe.

Matthew Simmons is the interviews editor at Hobart. He is The Man Who Couldn't Blog. He is the publisher/editor/designer at Happy Cobra Books. He "sings" and "plays guitar" and "does other stuff" in the band Fire in My Bag. He's writing a book of short stories called Happy Rock. He lives in Seattle.
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