don’t make me

By Larry Blumen

I’m not a comedian
don’t make me
make you laugh
although I could if
I weren’t sitting down

My aim is more
insidious—
to make you smile
without rippling the
muscles of your face
at all—
a conjurer’s trick
performed with
my sleeves rolled up
to my ankles

the furrows of your
unseen brain
will shiver
with metallic tastes