getting the joke

 

laugh, and keep control

a great gift from my mother to me:

"Laugh when your world goes off track!"

power goes out,

a computer slips into the inexplicable,

reality turns bizarre,

like so much in current events these days,

there are certainly times and places

for anger, for rage,

for acting upon the world to make things better,

but a laugh at absurdity can be the right response

to the unwillingness of the world to be rational,

a laugh called for when we look at the hand we are dealt

and realize that no card connects to another card,

Mother taught me to laugh at such a time,

to not give malevolence the power

to control our feelings,

woe not as constructive as getting the joke

the universe persists in playing upon us,

as my mother slipped into Alzheimer's,

she would often fall back into her default of the positive:

when she tried to stand

and I told her she hadn't walked for six months,

she looked at me and explained:

"either you're crazy, or I am,"

how wonderful when laughter can be your default.

by Henry H. Walker

October 11, ‘26