I was delayed that afternoon because I had brushed the teeth of a pretty animal that I'm patiently taming. It's a chameleon. This endearing animal smoked, as usual, some cigarettes, then I left. I met her on the stairs. "I'm mauving," she told me, while I myself crystal at full sky I at her look that river towards me.

Then it locks and, maîtresse! You pitcherpin so that at nice vase I sit down if the paths tombs.The staircase, always the staircase that library, and the crowds down there more abyss than the sun only clocks.

Lets get back up! But in vain, memories become sardine! hardly, hardly a button doodledoos. Fall, fall down! And here the verdict: "The dancer will be executed the following morning while doing a dance step with her gems sacrificed to the heat of her body: The blood of the gems, soldiers!"

And what then, the mirror yet! Mistress you black square, and if the clouds all at once forgetmenot, they mills in the ever present eternity.

Basic Set-Up:

This is a complete prose-poem by Robert Desnos, from his book Body and Goods.

Confused? So are we. We're meant to be confused, you see. A lot of nonsensical stuff is happening in this poem; there's no logic to the images or events. We go from someone brushing "the teeth of a pretty animal" to a staircase to a dancer who's going to be executed.

The poem evokes a dream or a fantasy because a) things are happening in it that don't happen in real life and b) things are happening out of order, in the kind of chronology of dreams. You know how you'll be dreaming about swimming and the next moment dreaming about talking to your kindergarten teacher? And when you try to tell someone about it (usually before coffee) it sounds totally garbled?

Yup. That's exactly what's happening here. Dreams and fantasies, as we might remember, are favorite themes among the Surrealists because they unlock and showcase the irrational side of humanity.

This passage exemplifies the Surrealist obsession with the irrational. Nothing rational is happening in this passage. What kind of animal smokes? How can memories become "sardine"? The wha—?

Even the language is ungrammatical in parts, as in this sentence: "Mistress you black square, and if the clouds all at once forgetmenot, they mills in the ever present eternity." The passage breaks all rules of logic, both in terms of language and reality. It also breaks our mind into a million little teeny pieces.