Abstract. The article is devoted to the analysis of the polycode text of the modern story. Currently, the visualization of verbal information of small format texts has been the material of the the polycode text linguistic study and defined as a trend in the modern text development. Such a non-verbal means as a picture that forms the literary text is activated in connection with the changed channels of communication and the desire to turn on the activity of the text addressee when reading it. In this case, we consider P.I. Filimonov’s story "Art and Life", inscribed in the drawing of the palm, as an example of literary polycode text. The minimum verbal structure is a punctuation-formulated everyday dialogue (reflection of life) with incomplete sentences, parcellation. The author writes about the pains of creativity and explicates them with a description of the life situation. Primitive, at first glance, the verbal organization of the text is interpreted by the artist K. Kangro at the level of deep meaning (the wrinkled palm of the left hand ends with a pencil finger) and as the genre definition method - "PALM SIZED STORY." Thanks to visualization, the reader perceives a small format text as artistic and deeply philosophical, since such a polycode text becomes a complex sign.