Freshwater Literary Journal 2022

Page 76

Richard LeDue The Most Unfunny Joke The fact we’re all going to die has become the most unfunny jokeorganized in a cupboard, canned goods don’t even whisper about their expiration dates, like good children we never were, who sit quietly, waiting their turn (the can opener rusted, but still works). Hands silenced by their own rough edges, hands once happy to play in mud, or feel a melted Popsicle run down fingers on a summer day, that sticky juice warning of old age, yet completely ignored in favor of sun burned legs chasing each other in a game we never named, only to end up laughingnow, it’s all faded into a memory, while we double check grocery lists. The scratch of a pencil deciding against rutabagas (or was it turnips?) sounding louder than it ever should.

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Freshwater Literary Journal 2022 by Freshwater Literary Journal - Issuu