Stand Up Comedy As Poetry

When you walk out or up or down to read,
Trip yourself just before the podium,
Look sheepishly, turn reddish,
Try to look like Alfred E. Neumann
As you fumble with the PA system
Keep saying, “Does this thing work?”
Then stroke back your hair with your right hand
Holding your poem in your left,
Keep stroking as you read,
Starting seriously with a poem about Viet Nam:
“My Mother wants to take me to Viet Nam,
To visit all the places where I spent
Ten harrowing months of my life in 1969,”
Then finish with this line:
“Mom, you want to go to a whorehouse in Saigon?”