Humor in Poetry...Lunch With Margaret

A friend and I were discussing humorous poetry recently. I write it off and on and enjoy it but have found that The Dead Mule: School of Southern Literature has been the only journal to appreciate and publish my humorous offerings over the years (Thank you, Dead Mule). The subject serrendipitously came up in two blogs this week. David Caddy , editor of the English print journal, Tears in the Fence, discusses Tom Raworth, an English poet, who was influenced by humor and wrote humor and Ron Silliman in today's blog discusses humor on the poetry of Jonathan Williams. Both are excellent articles.


Lunch With Margaret



Size 40 D's resting
on our fav lunch table,
she dissects
Saturday's date.
'It was THIS big';
arms flung wide.
Tea crashes into
my lap, drips onto floor.

I blush.
Pretend she discusses
the size steak ordered.

'And then he did THAT'.
Harder to stick
with steak story now.
She gestures, demonstrates,
sending fork,
lettuce attached,
to the plate of the
elderly man,
two tables away.

A tornado,
my friend Margaret.

Next week we meet
to discuss Sam.
Her latest..
This time I have
a plan:
Raincoat
Crash helmet
Walkman blaring
1812 Overture into both ears,
earpieces discretely tucked
under helmet.


Published in The Dead Mule

Art: Untitled by Cindy (her publishing name. No last name). She gave me permission years back to use this art with my poem, but her website has since disappeared.