The Last Laugh
I dreamt I stood before the world and cracked
a joke so hilarious, so lapidary, so utterly
beautiful that not one person was able to
laugh. They just sat there, silenced, as still as
statues of themselves just sitting there, silenced,
until one after another after another they came to
life, rising as if from rheumatism and applauding
with that special kind of applause often reserved
for the close of an Al Pacino homily or at the finish
line of a Special Olympics marathon. Nodding gravely
they could only ask themselves, So was that a joke or
was that a joke? Had it really happened? I dreamt
I stood before the world and cracked a joke
of such beauty it left every person so utterly
silenced they would only be able to speak
of it years later, while watching the HBO special
“The Hundred Greatest Comedians of our Time”
with their great grandchildren, remembering
how they were there, yes, really, they were
there the night the greatest joke history had
ever heard was cracked, their voices almost
breaking as they proclaimed, See that guy?
He wasn’t a comedian. He was a philosopher,
he was a poet, that guy, he was a fucking artist.
At Night Chinamen Hump
This is what I hear
Javier, my very Venezuelan roommate,
very excitedly recite
at three in the morning.
Groggy as I am, I miss
neither the mispronunciation,
nor the potential for some
even punchier punchlines (A-ha!
So that's why their population is so huge!).
What I do miss is
the rest of the poem,
which Javier has continued
to very excitedly recite.
But that’s okay. I’m okay
if I can say that while it appears
I am not a poet, I am a comedian.
Asterio Enrico N. Gutierrez is from Manila, Philippines. His fiction and poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in various publications, including the Philippine Graphic, Philippines Free Press, Sunday Times Magazine, and Lantern Review: A Journal of Asian American Poetry. He is a recipient of a Platinum Award from the Philippine Araw Values Awards, and is at work on a book of classical guitar arrangements of modern Filipino love songs as well as a beginner's classical guitar instruction chapbook. He took up Management Engineering for one year at the Ateneo de Manila University. He works as—don't laugh—an advertising copywriter.
I dreamt I stood before the world and cracked
a joke so hilarious, so lapidary, so utterly
beautiful that not one person was able to
laugh. They just sat there, silenced, as still as
statues of themselves just sitting there, silenced,
until one after another after another they came to
life, rising as if from rheumatism and applauding
with that special kind of applause often reserved
for the close of an Al Pacino homily or at the finish
line of a Special Olympics marathon. Nodding gravely
they could only ask themselves, So was that a joke or
was that a joke? Had it really happened? I dreamt
I stood before the world and cracked a joke
of such beauty it left every person so utterly
silenced they would only be able to speak
of it years later, while watching the HBO special
“The Hundred Greatest Comedians of our Time”
with their great grandchildren, remembering
how they were there, yes, really, they were
there the night the greatest joke history had
ever heard was cracked, their voices almost
breaking as they proclaimed, See that guy?
He wasn’t a comedian. He was a philosopher,
he was a poet, that guy, he was a fucking artist.
At Night Chinamen Hump
This is what I hear
Javier, my very Venezuelan roommate,
very excitedly recite
at three in the morning.
Groggy as I am, I miss
neither the mispronunciation,
nor the potential for some
even punchier punchlines (A-ha!
So that's why their population is so huge!).
What I do miss is
the rest of the poem,
which Javier has continued
to very excitedly recite.
But that’s okay. I’m okay
if I can say that while it appears
I am not a poet, I am a comedian.
Asterio Enrico N. Gutierrez is from Manila, Philippines. His fiction and poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in various publications, including the Philippine Graphic, Philippines Free Press, Sunday Times Magazine, and Lantern Review: A Journal of Asian American Poetry. He is a recipient of a Platinum Award from the Philippine Araw Values Awards, and is at work on a book of classical guitar arrangements of modern Filipino love songs as well as a beginner's classical guitar instruction chapbook. He took up Management Engineering for one year at the Ateneo de Manila University. He works as—don't laugh—an advertising copywriter.
