LAUGHING MEMORIES (new poem)

I remember all the good times and partying we used to do

Jamming to the music, eatin’ Daddy’s delicious barbeque

Laughing at jokes that weren’t meant for a child’s ears

Just a memory now of those good old years

Soul train lines, and our family sing a longs

Now I forget a few words to some of the Motown songs

But I can’t forget how we’d sit atop the basement steps

We’d come down to get cake and food

Dad and Moms thought we’d left

We would hear Richard Pryor, Redd Fox, and Mom’s Mabley too

Then a roar of laughter from family, friends, and you

Then Daddy would grab the mic and tell a joke or two

He served a punch line, and he was always smooth

You would believe each word that he spoke

Be it a “Charles original”, or just his favorite joke

We had to be quiet, and hold our mouths with our hands

If we were caught, we knew they wouldn’t understand

 

that we just wanted to laugh and have fun too

You know, just the way the grown ups do

I remember them arguing sometimes

 

Ma and Dad

From behind the door, you could tell they were mad

He’d tell mom that “ June it’s okay to laugh!”

But she was “ so serious” and “wasn’t having that!”

So they argued back and forth, back and forth for a while

Then I could just picture my Daddy’s smile

Then after about a minute and a half

….. All of a sudden, they’d break out in belly laughs

Ma and Dad, now both up above

Thank you for the treasured memories of love

Yes, my dear parents, I must confess

Of all my inheritance, I love laughter the best

By Antoinette Denise Johnson

Copyright © 2010