I Can’t Tell A Joke, But…😜
I can’t tell a joke
But when singing and playing in choked, smokey rooms,
I do have a sense of life’s humor.
A sense of the funny, the laughable, comical,
Silly and farcical,
Thoughtless, illusory, foolhardy,
Yes, even pointless ridiculousness.
Yet, I am not trying. I guess
I’m just pleasant, a nice Brooklyn peasant girl
Doing her best.
From whence
Comes this sense?
Well, I can’t say I know.
It shows when performing.
When babbling freely
Some sense of the silly comes storming in,
Wholly spontaneous – and people laugh!
It’s good for my craft
And I sing extra well, (I can tell).
I have extra fun.
I am Parker* and Corwin all rolled into one.
According to thinkers, philosophers, sages,
Life is appearance, and all through the ages
The seeker and pundit
Have seen the truths under it,
And that the truth’s often funny,
Believe it or not.
I can’t tell a joke
But my yolk is pure gold.
*Dorothy Parker poet, critic satirist 1893-1967
I Can’t Tell A Joke, But…4.2.2019 A Sense Of The Ridiculous II; Arlene Nover Corwin
Arlene Corwin Poetry 