A PHOTOGRAPH OF CHARLIE CHAPLIN AND ALBERT EINSTEIN - J.R. Solonche

Although it looks as if they're only sharing a dirty joke,
still one wonders what they're talking about,

these two world-champion tramps,
physicist and funnyman,

shoulder to shoulder, smiling for the camera,
foundling brothers reunited

after living all their lives apart,
posing like ancient tribal enemies caught

in the act of compromise at this
their secret summit of the sublime and the ridiculous,

discovered now as though the gods,
jealous of such shocking amity,

had blackmail on their minds.
But they know better, standing together

like a bad rhyme,
their twinkling eyes admitting zero

but universal laughter,
ridiculous and sublime.

Originally published by The American Scholar 1994(ish)

Nominated for the National Book Award, the Eric Hoffer Book Award, and nominated three times for the Pulitzer Prize, J.R. Solonche is the author of 38 books of poetry and coauthor of another. He lives in the Hudson Valley.