Portrait of the Artist as a Young Cephalopod Mollusk, by Stephen D. Gibson

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Cephalopod Mollusk

after Illegal Alien’s Guide to the Concept of Relative Surplus Value, by Enrique Chagoya (USA, b. Mexico) contemporary
https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/illegal-aliens-guide-concept-relative-surplus-value-78309
​ 
I am not this gorilla businessman, briefcase/club high in my hand; grey and shaggy-haired, he walks on storm waves. I am not these oil tankers, super ships, or tiny boats for no more than four folks, or these ducks in a row. I am not a robot airborne on a flying fish, my cold metal legs grasping its cold metal scales, listening to the deep bass quote Marx. I am not Olive Oil or Popeye, but I’d like to be. I am not surrounded by a golden gilded frame as interesting as I am. I am this red octopus, a tentacled child of October, my speech a tangled graph.
  
Stephen D. Gibson

Stephen D. Gibson studied writing at Purdue University and the University of Houston. His short fiction has appeared in The Citron Review, 100WordStory, and Wigleaf. It has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and for Best Microfiction. When not reading, writing, or playing board games, he is with his family. They have a no-pet policy.