There’s no punchline
A free-verse poem inspired by the movie JOKER (2019)
Today’s one of those days.
Buffer day. Yellow-toned.
Not autumnal though. Wintry.
Through the tunnel of memory,
He can surprisingly recall
The same goddam’ day
A year earlier, when he walked
Lightly on a thin, thin thread
Only to be swallowed down
The next moment
By the abyss of depression.
Red, Blue, Red-Blue-Blue-Red
“It’s one of those days”, he says,
“ That carries you through a maze
Of dimly-lit corridors
Into the operation room.
The dazzling neon-light
Seems unbearable by contrast.
After a while, you get used to it
And you come to discover
Your surgeon is no other
Than your own psychotic mother
Isn’t that ironic ? Isn’t that funny ?”
He bursts into laughter.
Like a maniac.
Red, Blue, Red-Blue-Blue-Red
All you can hear
On such days of cowardice
Are sirens ! On repeat !
A broken Jukebox…
“Makes the sanest of all
Wanna blow their brains out”,
He interrupts, a large smile
Painted on his face
While “firing” two fingers
Put to his temple.
Then, he lights a cigarette
And puffs these words out :
“How come sirens sing louder than birds ?
How come the open realm is theirs ?
And where are all the birds by the way ?
Of course they flew away, the cowards !”
We’re left with the reds, blues and yellows.
It’s hard to forget on these days
We’re dying too.
Maybe not on an ambulance,
But dying nonetheless.
Let us dance then ;
To kill something ourselves,
To punch agony in the ribs,
And make a colourful statement.
