Baby and the Failed Poet

a comedy of errors

I asked my son, a few hours after he was born,

What is it like to be unborn?

(I assumed that being unborn is like being

not alive,a bit dead, and that life is like a slice of ham

between two slices of bread. I wanted to get some

advance information in  the unlikely case that I might

not always be alive).

He turned green. He said something that sounded like

doodledoodlegrumpfpoufmurfmurfmurf.

He probably thought.:

What have I done to deserve this ?

Do I really have to be the son of a failed poet ?

Author's Note

I think it is important that I sometimes laugh at myself.
So here you go.

Reviews

[Sel Whiteley]

We must never take ourselves too seriously…

I love the way you look at the fetus and the corpse as being the same: such scientific logic is usually missing from poetry. But more than that, I think this may well be the only poem I have ever read (here or elsewhere) about a newborn baby that is not overly sentimentalized. This made me laugh so much and the characterization was magnificent. I thank you for that!

[Dr. Wood ?]

Well it is very important to laugh at yourself....Especially when you are funny....and this piece is very good. I struggle with blank verse although I have been dabbling in poetry for over 50 years. This is very Spike Milligan...One of my heroes in comedic verse

[FJ Davis]

Eminently reasonable and searingly enlightening.
More of these tiny beings--fresh from a mysterious place we overgrown infants can simply no longer recall--should be interrogated. Knowledge must be served. Clearly, Leslie innately understood; could essentially interpret the miniature Winston Churchill lookalike's primitive language.
And who has not, in deepest contemplation, strongly suspected Life's ham- sandwich connection?
Yes, Mr. Philibert, I laughed at your brave breakthrough of an offering--but mostly in triumph!

[Distant horizons]

:-)

if you can't laugh at yourself.....

[SpitfireGrrrl]

This is great! I am all about humor - I wish I could get more of it into my writing.

[BLACK PRINCE]

It's a good sense of humour.

[Stacey Watts]

This was very funny. Sometimes I feel this way. Your son has all those wise secrets. Those babies never share. They keep it to themselves. Very cute poem. I like this.