*****

Recorded Reading (2:18):

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/ua9iaid5znusoxe191c0l/Ode-to-Silliness.mp3?rlkey=e084yz96g71dyiuw6vpgopv3j&st=nsspb9xg&dl=0

*****

Ode to Silliness

O silliness! We clutch our stomachs hard
Wiping tears from every streaming eye,
Waving weak hands before us, so to ward
Away nearer approach ~ then these belie

By pitching yet another ludicrous
And inapt comment out into the ring,
Just when control was coming back to us
We our adulthoods were remembering,

Demeanors regaining some dignity,
Semi hysteria brought into line
By reassumed respectability —
So soon to know another steep decline!

For so it goes in silly company; so go,
Fleeting and far, ones hopes of near reprieve;
Panting requests at least the pace to slow
Commonly short, short, short, short shrift receive

Shorter even than, post-Napolian,
Measured the great Egyptian Sphinx’s nose,
Shorter than whatever’s inside that can
Which with the flour and the sugar goes

You know that guy who’s s’posed to stop the ball?
Shorter than him. Yep. So short that it has
Upon the help of faithful kin to call
Whenever it would like to reach its ~ television antenna…

Shorter than TV shows between the breaks.
You picture what I’m talkin ‘bout? Not tall
By any standards ‘cept the bugs’ and snakes’ ~
You wouldn’t have to train it up a wall

Or prop it up, or buy for it a cane
Or call a mobile nurse or Meals on Wheels
Until it could go out of doors again
(Next week we’ll check again, see how it feels)

~ None of that stuff ~ that’s how completely short
Silly companions have been often known
The importuned recession to abort ~
Yet thinking they had great compassion shown!

No, on deep thought (just try it, you will see)
I think, for the preserve of sanity
(For whate’er worth ones sanity may be)
We should keep very ser’ious company!

*****

This poet/editor is physically disabled, and lives at a fraction of her nation’s poverty level.

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