"The church joke" by Grant Shimmin

(South Africa, circa 1980)

The laughter surrounded us

Each member of the audience chronically infected

as the joke plunged on towards its punchline

when the roars would rise even higher

There’d been plenty of laughs already

There were many more to come

Laughter was the order of an evening that followed 

an afternoon of fun, fellowship, food

the entertainment to tie it together and send us home satisfied

There we were, the staff of a Bible college

students, senior church members 

families, kids, my brother and me - 11 and 13 

bewitched by unbridled belly laughs

Church jokes, clean jokes… blessed jokes?

And somewhere beyond the half-lit semi-circle 

of this joyous Saturday evening soirée

the only people there with accents

close to the one the joker mockingly aped

were finally settling in for the evening

in the servants’ quarters

Grant Shimmin is a South African-born poet, resident in New Zealand since 2001. He has work published/forthcoming at Roi Faineant Press, Does It Have Pockets?, The Hooghly Review, Dreich, and elsewhere.