Let's See if Irony Can Still Exist: Another Revised Poem from Atheists and Empty Spaces

The Cover of Dewey Lynn Gets Arrested

Yes, Gentle Readers, I have posted a picture of the cover of Dewey Lynn Gets Arrested to remind you that this novella is available for sale at Amazon and Lulu.com. Sales were not bad at first, but they have fallen off to nothing. Yep! A big, fat zero! Help a brother out! Also, my niece Miranda asked me last week at Mom's 80th birthday party if my books needed to be read in order, and I told her what I now tell you. Yes, yes, they really do. So, if you haven't started on the Dewey Lynn trilogy of novellas, you need to read Uncle Boog and the Dogfight first, Aunt Charlotte's Crib second, and DLGA last. That is the order of things, my friends.

Okay, to the poem...well...like last week's poem, this poem discusses rather deep social and philosophical subjects. However, last week's In Chains was pretty straightforward. It said basically, "This happens and this happens, and this is the result." Today's poem is not straightforward because it is heavily flavored with irony. Irony basically expresses an absurdity where something is as it should never be or is not as it always should be. An Arkansas state trooper should never receive a speeding ticket in another state, for instance. Or to quote Alannis Morrisette's song Ironic, "It's like rain on a wedding day/It's a free ride when you've already paid/It's like good advice that you just can't take/And who would have thought that it mattered..." or something like that. I'm operating from memory. I read an article recently that said that irony is dead in American society because so few people are functionally aware of what is right and wrong, good and bad, necessary and unnecessary, or moral and immoral that irony simply cannot exist--though it should! Which I guess is ironic--or is it merely coincidence. By the way, irony and humorous or apt coincidence are not the same thing, but I really can't tell you the difference. Go figure!

Anyway, here is the poem. If you have any questions, email me at mbt1966@yahoo.com. As always, ENJOY!

A Carpenter’s Man

My hammer frames scaffolds for scholars,

Builds stages no sages will see,

But, if they are fastened with dollars,

My conscience will always be free.

I’ve created a canon for atheists,

A model of Christ’s liberty,

Inspired by radical deists

Who claim that my conscience is free.

I’ve made many crosses for racists,

Who bind them to God’s sanctity

By burning their tongues on their bases

And believing their conscience is free.

I beat plowshares to swords for Jesus

Since my brothers and sisters agree

That the heathens are ready to seize us,

And our consciences must be free.

We have done what we must to be free.