New Year's Resolution - Humor: A New Poem

I don't know about you, but I take things so seriously. It's not that I don't have a sense of humor. I just to need to bump laughter higher up on my list of responses to things.  It could be my new year's resolution, though I really don't usually make them.

So, here's the poem:

Finding Humor

With a Nod to May Sarton

 

 

Is it hidden

under a rock?

Gone underground?

Risen up to float

on a cloud?

Or is it lurking

behind the very serious

redwood trees,

waiting for the right moment

to leap out and

startle me?

 

I am bound and determined

to find it.

I will search through

the detritus for

a flash of shine.

I am coming for you,

humor.

Your pixie ways

do not deter me,

for I was told to

hold to three things:

strength; laughter; endurance.

I can conjure strength,

be resolved and enduring.

But laughter?

Well, then...

Here I am -

coming for you.

The May Sarton reference? It's this poem, which I keep close to me and have for a long time.

Maybe it's here?

Who answers the door? A new poem

 The title of the poem says it all...

Fear

  

He sits, vigilant,

in a hard-backed chair,

twirling a thin mustache

between thumb

and forefinger.

Any time there is

a knock at the door,

he is quick to

get there first.

I never even try

to beat him

to the punch.

 

Look - I say to him –

You have done this

my whole life.

Can’t you let

someone else

respond?

 

Absolutely not – he says.

You gave me this job,

and I will always

perform.

 

All right – I say.

But I will follow

and decide myself

how to welcome

any arrival.

 

His shoulders

slump a bit.

He is so used

to being

in control.

But I am no longer

a child, or even

an adult.

I am an old woman.

It is time

to take my place.

I sit down

In that chair.

He backs off

and goes to stand

in the corner,

waiting.