A Serious Talk

I’m trying for humour
(and getting it wrong)
something of whimsy
like a Stackridge song.
Your smile is tourniquet
tight -a real lemon-biter’s-
in sugaring this pill I
might still lose your respect.

But when things matter we
simply make a joke of it;
a very British thing,
mocking the serious, a bit
like laughing in the face
of some unbearable disease,
denying our mind space
to consider the consequences.