For John Ritter

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1
such was his rubber face.
he bounced around and
tripped and spun and stumbled
as if his sense of humor was a disease,
as if his sense of humor stayed with him even
if he wished it away
or if it ruined other choices
or if he mugged himself into hollywood obscurity

2
his feet were clowns
his face was a clown
his heart was clownish
and yet soft and warm 
as a tear when you hear a
funnyman is gone

3
sex will never be as zany,
double entendree's will never again be
like double scoops of wicked ice cream


  4
true clowns elicit laughter
long after they take
their last pratfall
into the blue open sky,
long after they land flat on our 
aching memories.


© Lamont Palmer

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