I Laugh...

By Michael Valentine

Sun, 29 Mar 2015

1248 reads

3 comments

I Laugh...

I laugh at the cats mewing into the abyss

I laugh at the alley-ways decorated in piss

I laugh at the birds cooing high in the park trees

I laugh when I say ‘thank you’ and I laugh when I say ‘please’

Because nobody ever said life should be so serious

No-one knows that God doesn’t have a sense of humour

So I laugh at the milk spilled o’er the kitchen tiles

I laugh all day long and for another little while

I laugh at the meth-heads, poppy-wearers and priests

I’ll laugh my days away at the living and then laugh at the deceased

Because nobody can really know a laughs meaning or how sincere it is

See, I laughed into a halcyon light when I grew my first tumour

I laugh at the car-crashes which make me late for work

I laugh at the shadows in which assaulters lurk

I laugh when I drink, when I sleep and when I smoke

And I laugh at the punch-line although I missed the start of the joke

Because nobody ever said that life should be so serious

And no-one can know for certain that we aren’t the universe’s greatest gag

So I laughed when they stuck the boot in, and sliced the blade ‘neath my eye

And I laughed when the bystanders became passersby

I even laughed at the funeral when they served whiskey older than me

I laughed in my little wooden box and savoured the irony

Because you could all get run over by a double-decker bus tomorrow

So, won’t you laugh for my memory and I’ll laugh for your sorrows?

Certificate 15

Poem

White Lines and Black Rhymes

Surreal

Humour

Comments

Wow Michael, loved this, too

Permalink Submitted by Sooz006 on Sun, 2015-03-29 20:45

Wow Michael, loved this, too many good phrases to mention. I don't like much in the way of poetry, I particularly don't like rhyming poetry because it often reads so twee, I'm prose to the core, but I loved this.

Thank you so much; it means

Permalink Submitted by Michael Valentine on Sun, 2015-03-29 20:58

Thank you so much; it means all the more knowing your aversion to rhyming poetry. I usually write to a melody on the piano or guitar so most of my stuff rhymes. I must admit, there is more gratification in poetry for me: a lot of great ideas in prose are easily missed wherease a poem like this can be read ten times in a few minutes. Really appreciate your comment. Thanks again.

Michael

Good poem. You say a lot in

Permalink Submitted by Kurt Rellians on Thu, 2015-04-02 17:27

Good poem. You say a lot in each line. Very bitter, very effective!