Lisp Sync

 
                             Lisp Sync

         Gay poets slam their verses down,
         competing for a rhythmic crown.
         Clever rhymes they do declaim
         while bitter rivals are defamed:
         "Don't they know, the thilly cunth,
         there ith no word to rhyme with month!"

 
                   Terrence G. Fisher 2019

 

Author's Note ▼

"Comedy Newsletter (March 13, 2019)" 
 
This poem is a perfect example of starting with a punchline and working backwards. I found the last line in a Snapple cap and took it as a challenge: can I create a rhyme for the word 'month'? The penultimate line bubbled up from my subconscious a few days later and I knew I had a workable punchline for a humorous poem. The couplet had a good flow and it provided the twist of simultaneously denying and revealing the 'impossible' rhyme.

The next step was to find a plausible character to deliver the punchline. A few weeks later I heard a gay character with a stereotypical lisp on a TV show. I realized that a gay poet could deliver the line as an insult, and that a poetry slam would be a perfect setting. Once the concept was clear in my mind, the first four lines of the poem followed quickly.