buffoon
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laugh …
please feel free
the fat old man is here for
your entertainment
‘there must be a purpose that we strung
the aged fool along for’ …
right??
it’s not that I feel like an impish idiot
(though I do … completely)
the contrary element is that it’s
not like ME …
I’ve always been in command -
always been the giddy-up in the group
the jump-to-it-and-do-it guy
not the court jester
not the clown
but somehow life has caught
up with my body
(when I wasn’t looking)
and it feels like I’m in alien skin -
like the flesh that hugs my
bones is not mine
and it won’t do what I ask of it -
what I expect it to
what it should …
oh, I’m laughing, too
the thought of how entirely doltish
I must appear …
the bumbling, fumbling boob
as wet as he is sore
bruised and burnt and as old-fartish
as they come …
if only we’d caught it on camera
we could all laugh again
we could roar and tee-hee ‘til
the cows come home -
bells on my hat and shoes
reality like whiteface on my cheeks
dancing a fatuous jig
jiggling and giggling for the
crowd’s amusement
while the man -
the once proud and valiant
gentleman inside …
turns …
to dust.
Copyright © Gregory Richard Barden, June 19, 2024
Copyright © Gregory Richard Barden | Year Posted 2024
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