Humor Poem by Ted L Glines

Humor
by Ted L Glines

The man tells his wife
'Watch your step - don't fall, '
but this is Murphy's Law of life,
he falls against the wall
and makes the crowd convulse with laughter,
surprised by his plight,
and guffaws raise the rafter,
another prat-fall cheers the night.

From sublime to absurd
lies a very short road;
with a mystic arcane word,
“zap” - your boyfriend is a toad,
and we who take ourselves so seriously
in hot debates of God and Money
may be laughing deliriously
when we see ourselves as funny.

If it were not for disasters,
both nature's and man-made,
there'd be no work for telecasters
and no jokesters would be paid,
for the human condition,
in all its awfulness and pain,
lends a poetic vision
and gives the wit to laugh again.

Author's Notes: What is the 'secret' of humor? Why is a joke funny? Patty and I dined at Panda's (a Chinese buffet) and, following an excellent meal full of wonderful Chinese taste treats, three different Chinese serving girls offered us ice cream for dessert. For some unknown reason, Patty and I found this offer of ice cream ludicrous, and the repeated offers had us giggling behind our hands. Now, years later, we still remember the 'dreaded ice cream' and we break into gales of laughter. Why? Ice cream for dessert sounds like such a normal thing, hardly worth a smile, let alone outright laughter. Perhaps there is a tiny bit of insanity in this 'funny bone' of ours. If so - so mote it be!