This is a variation on an earlier theme, yet even as I present it here it feels to be a qualified failure. The main action in the last line balances upon the word 'corpsing', which is when an actor breaks character and begins laughing. For those of you who remember, think Harvey Korman and Tim Conway on, "The Carol Burnette Show".
Death at a Social Function (an obligatory obituary)
Between St Vitus’ waltzes round the ward and a stolen glance at swollen glands,
I would have thought you passed on long ago. It pains me, though, as you lift a finger
to your lips as eavesdropping is your weakness and I it’s reluctant witness…
“Then, out of kindness, I gave her a plum and have not been rid of her since…”
“What was that slogan of the resurrectionists? ‘everybody needs some body’ wasn’t it?”
“…it was her sincerity that was vulgar. I had had delusions of slander on mind…”
“His insistence was that he was, “S-V-E-L-T-E” as if a thesaurus eliminated his convexity.”
“Should I then? Need I? Do I have to?”
“O’ no, I shouldn’t say this was the first: Death has been in my family for years,” then, but, for the roaring of the corpsing characters, it would have been silent as the dead…
No comments:
Post a Comment