Tuesday, April 14, 2020

Dead

Looking for something to lift my
corona-dampened spirits on Easter
I rooted thru my box of DVDs
and started laffing the instant I spotted

It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World,
laffing at my memory of Jerry Lewis
grinning maniacally as he swerves
in the street in front of police headquarters

and flattens Spencer Tracy's hat
while Tracy (Capt. Culpeper)
leans out the open window
through which he had tossed the hat,

aiming for the hat rack next to the window--
[pause here to finish laffing]
laffing at my memory of Jonathan Winters's
rampage in a brand new service station,

bringing down the building and knocking
its two uniformed owners senseless
before driving away in their wrecker.
I laffed as my eyes caressed

the DVD’s mad mad mad mad cover,
with its cast of 15—many of them
comics—peering madly at me
through and around the title’s letters

while leafy green silver certificates
rain down on everyone,
and I laffed remembering that scene,
and while I was laffing, eager

to pop the movie into my laptop,
a wee harmless question
bubbled up through my excitement,
and I Googled up the movie’s Wiki site

and, losing the fight to keep from
clicking the next link, I learned
the one thing I didn’t really need to know,
want to know--

I had already assumed the lion
in the MGM logo atop the cover was dead,
which didn’t bother me, but when I saw Mickey Rooney
had died April 6 six years ago I knew

I soon would be laffing at the antics
of an all-dead cast, which, I had little doubt,
would lift my weary spirits,
nonetheless.

                                                                                                                        m.d. paust

2 comments:

  1. One of my faves too, Mathew. How time passes...

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  2. We like watching that movie too, Mathew. So many good, talented actors. And I love the ending.

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