( I’ve already had my rant poem this month . Now here’s my disgusting one)

God is constantly telling me jokes
some of them just a few seconds long
one where the punchline took 50 years 
(and that’s just the record so far)

I was spending the night with a new school friend
who was smart and funny and out of control
 and when it was time to turn in it was like
he turned into a kid with a brand-new toy 
bringing it out and proudly demonstrating
his recently acquired magical ability 
we were thirteen and some of us
had lead in our pencils and some of us
hadn’t quite gotten there yet I  was
thoroughly amazed and a little  creeped out
having never seen this kind of display before.

Thirty years later my knowledge of punk rock
could have been described as minimal
being busy with raising kids at the time
I was vaguely aware that he’d moved to New York
and that his last name had gone to Hell
I had no idea he’d inspired the Sex Pistols
and was the  first person Legs Mcneil
had seen shooting up.

So I’m thumbing through some
music down at CD Central
when I stumble onto Blank Generation
and everyone turns as I burst out laughing
when I see the first song is titled
“Love Comes In Spurts”

(Richard we were only in the eighth grade
together so I didn’t expect to be mentioned
in your book and I understand why you
still remember Mimi because after half a
century I still do too.)

I truly believe that if I had a
perfect memory and paid 
enough attention all of the time
God’s jokes  at all speeds would
come at me so often I would
probably die from laughing.