High Jinks | Richard Murphy
POETRY
7/19/20261 min read
The moment comes
where slapstick sticks,
where Wile E Coyote runs off a cliff
and this time “that’s all folks,”
a writer plummeting through
a chapter, the last, half expects
(ba dum tsh and) a great laughter
guffawing over a writing desk. Splat!
How many poets collaborate
to screw in a lightbulb overhead?
The joke, long intuited
by the pencil pusher and keyboard
virtuoso, pleads for audience
to “get it” and play along
because life pulls a leg
on every living body after all.
The gag played on each frontal lobe
has no reason to offer.
Through all the breathing,
heart throbs, and hustle bustle,
the tickle near the tonsils
reports to the butt in humor.
Rich Murphy’s latest collections, Elephant by Bass Clef Books; Storage Shed, Inside Stories, First Aid by Resource Publications; and Mind of Europe: A Genealogy to The Fat Man, Susan Constant, Footholds by Cyberwit were published 2023-2025. His poetry won The Poetry Prize at Press Americana twice for Americana (2013), The Left Behind (2021), and Gival Press Poetry Prize for Voyeur (2008). His other book by Press Americana is Asylum Seeker (2018). His first book was The Apple in the Monkey Tree by Codhill Press (2007).