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Vera Kilgore Heilig: Her Poetry Lives (2017) H. Morris Williams, Marie Law Haire

Pagliacci

My mother used to say that I would chaff

At my own funeral and make the mourners laugh.
I often shocked her with a flippancy

That she was sure would be the end of me.
“This is no time for joking.” she would say.

I thought that it was just the other way
And I would never save my little jokes

Until some other time when maybe folks

-Would be in gayer mood. It seems to me
A joke was meant to lighten misery.

I’ve even seen a situation tense
Turned by a timely jest from violence

And many a mournful face with turned down lip

Has smiled again because of some small quip.
I hope that she was right. That when I die

The friends who come around to say goodbye
Will laugh. I would not wish for them to cry.

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