Today, our featured resource is Verse Daily, where you will find – you guessed it – a new poem every day. You can also check out more than twenty years of archived poems – a rich collection indeed.

Finally, here’s our (optional) prompt for the day. Begin by reading Charles Simic’s poem “The Melon.” It would be easy to call the poem dark, but as they say, you wouldn’t know what light is if you didn’t have darkness. Or vice versa. The poem illuminates the juxtaposition between grief and joy, sorrow and reprieve. For today’s challenge, write a poem in which laughter comes at what might otherwise seem an inappropriate moment – or one that the poem invites the reader to think of as inappropriate.

I’m not sure if this fits but this is the best I could do.

Grandma's funeral 
was rather surreal 
Dad was the only one who looked morose
Although there were others there, who were close.
'She was miserly and old 
And left behind so much gold,' 
disgruntled, I heard them say. 
But when they saw Papa, they 
clicked their tongue, shook their head 
and looked with downcast eyes, that appeared from crying, red.

Grandma lay on a bier, frozen 
awaiting her final journey to heaven 
We, dressed in whites, watched the funeral rites. 
When in came a kitten, 
and caught our attention. 
It made its way 
to where grandma lay-
dainty and white with eyes, lake green
It was the prettiest kitten I had seen  

All who sat watched
as, under the bier, the creature crouched. 
When my little sis squealed. 'It's Grandma. She's returned!' 
All heads turned 
towards the four-legged creature, 
momentarily forgetting they were there for Grandma's departure. 
Dad looked down 
with a frown 
and shooed the animal away; frightened, she scurried 
leaving everyone present, harried-  

they lifted their feet
as she crawled under their seat, 
creating a commotion
that had nothing to do with the cremation. 
My sister got down on all fours. 
Someone closed the doors and shouted, 'Don't let Grandma go'
'It's reincarnation, just so you know.' 
Dad turned around, his face sombre. 
He said, 'It's time to see off my mother.'  

Then turning to my sister, 
he said, 'Bring your grandmother home.'

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