The Gorko Gazette

Daily Humor

thegorkogazette

9.2.2024 6:54 AM

‘Amusement’ by Bart Edelman

Amusement

You’ve come full circle,
While I’m a bit over the edge,
Just biding my time,
Until the next merry goes
Round and round and round—
Should it ever come to that.
There are ground rules
For this kind of amusement,
But we’ve long forgotten them.
After all, marriage is consensual;
At least it was back then,
When we took the first ride.

Now we can’t buy a ticket
To the sideshow carnival,
Unless we’re one of the acts.
And the haunted house
Has too many familiar ghosts
We know by name.
Still, the fortune teller predicts
One event after another,
Even though it’s unclear,
Whether we’ll remain together.
Better to follow the sword swallower.
Watch the magic work its way
From top to bottom,
Before our very eyes.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Bart Edelman’s poetry collections include Crossing the Hackensack (Prometheus Press), Under Damaris’ Dress (Lightning Publications), The Alphabet of Love (Red Hen Press), The Gentle Man (Red Hen Press), The Last Mojito (Red Hen Press), The Geographer’s Wife (Red Hen Press), Whistling to Trick the Wind (Meadowlark Press), and This Body Is Never at Rest: New and Selected Poems 1993 – 2023 (Meadowlark Press). He has taught at Glendale College, where he edited Eclipse, a literary journal, and, most recently, in the MFA program at Antioch University, Los Angeles. His work has been widely anthologized in textbooks published by City Lights Books, Etruscan Press, Fountainhead Press, Harcourt Brace, Longman, McGraw-Hill, Prentice Hall, Simon & Schuster, Thomson/Heinle, the University of Iowa Press, Wadsworth, and others. He lives in Pasadena, California.