This might not sound serious

This might not sound serious

but I don’t like my laugh.

It sounds like a hyena
that’s got a bad cough

and sometimes I hiccough
then that makes me giggle

so I’m choking and whooping
with spits in the middle.

I’ve tried every cure
from thinking of death

to holding my nose
to stop-off my breath

but nothing will change it
nothing will work

whatever I’ve tried
seems to make my laugh worse

my barking gets louder,
the hiccoughing giggles

rise to rhino-staccato,
drop to jellyfish-dribbles.

When the circus is over,
I’m weak and wet through.

It’s hard work is laughing
when your laugh’s like a zoo.

Copyright: from Pictures in My Mind (Macdonald Young Books, 1999), © Joan Poulson 1999, used by permission of the author

More about this poem

Although many of Joan’s poems are in free verse, you can hear that they still use strong rhythms. Her similes and metaphors bring the ...

Learn more
Themes
Glossary
Age Groups

Explore Similar Poems

Also by Joan Poulson

By Tags

Close