Ted Hughes — In Laughter

Cars collide and erupt luggage and babies In laughter The steamer upends and goes under saluting like a stuntman In laughter The nosediving aircraft concludes with a boom In laughter People‘s arms and legs fly off and fly on again In laughter The haggard mask on the bed rediscovers its pang In laughter, in laughter The meteorite crashes With extraordinary ill-luck on the pram The ears and eyes are bundled up Are folded up in the hair, Wrapped in the carpet, the wallpaper, tied with the lampflex Only the teeth work on And the heart, dancing on in its open cave Helpless on the strings of laughter While the tears are nickel-plated and come through doors with a bang And the wails stun with fear And the bones Jump from the torment flesh has to stay for Stagger some distance and fall in full view Still laughter scampers around on centipede boots Still it runs all over on caterpillar tread And rolls back onto the mattress, legs in the air But it‘s only human And finally it‘s had enough—enough! And slowly sits up, exhausted, And slowly starts to fasten buttons, With long pauses, Like somebody the police have come for.