the last recorded incident of Rubik’s cube sticker removal...

[billy]

the last recorded incident of Rubik’s cube sticker removal as a means to an end primarily as a result of changing policies regarding horse glue by the good people of Ideal Toys



Matt Torrance or Vance
lived until he died.

Not remarkably, not unremarkably
which I suppose leaves us with
common flashes of brilliance

but it wasn’t until I was approached
by Vance’s mother that I got to thinking
about him

she said Vance had wanted me to go to my
ten year high school reunion and tell that joke I always tell
about the man in the supermarket who
out of nowhere meets a woman who says

not to be afraid of telling the joke about a horse
despite the recent tragedy or the peverse nature [perverse]
of the joke at such a time, and

anyway, in a supermarket
she told me to go to my high school reunion
and we didn’t comment on the how it was a shame
except to say I’d seen Vance
at my last high school reunion

5 year reunion I said "" missing
"too soon," she said
"too soon for a reunion"

and Vance’s mother meets this guy in a supermarket
and says that there’s this joke that he has to tell about this guy and a horse
and it will resonate with others because Vance
liked horses

which leaves us with:
a guy walks into a supermarket and meets a woman who hates jokes except this one joke about
a guy and a horse who breaks a leg too soon
being that the horse had an outside chance at immortality

a fact that, be it true or untrue
is now irrefutable
-a horse crippled at its peak

and more so
two people walk into a supermarket
each with his/her own idea of the value of jokes

especially humor in the face of grief
and the woman says to the man
tell the joke that Vance liked and make these people
ten years older now
make them laugh Vance's joke

but I tell her that the joke doesn’t have a horse in it

I tell her (and god forgive me) the joke involves:
a man sees a beautiful blond in a supermarket and
the woman tells the man that she has one of his kids

and the man searches his brain
sure that he would remember
such a beautiful woman

and finally the man says

hey I remember now
"you’re the stripper I fucked on the pool table while your sister
spanked me with a bamboo stalk"

and the woman says
"no, I’m his math teacher"

and these two people trapped in the purgatory
of a supermarket
a place where all people go in times of death
during mundane afternoons
laugh at the punch line
a punch line that doesn’t involve horses

for some reason
a lack of horses
is comforting
this day

and there’s this one about a mother
who lost a son to cancer
who tells this joke about a stripper
and a man with a penchant for light S&M
everywhere she goes

which relieves the preacher
who wanted to laugh
who wanted to laugh

i never noticed the parts that had no grammar, had no grammar so that worked, the title and lead in did nothing at all for me in away that enhanced the trivialities of the poem.

i thought it was wickedly clever but not obviously so.. i did enjoy recounting the previous stanza of all the stanza in order to get a grip on the thing and i probably failed,, it's like a train of thought joke from the twilight zone. but i did and do like it. it reminds me of the aristocats jokes which always have the same ending. after reading this i think i need a larger IQ apart from the intro and title i have no nits, not even sure if the title thin is a nit

thannks for the read..