{"id":421,"date":"2026-02-07T22:45:43","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T22:45:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/?p=421"},"modified":"2026-02-07T22:48:05","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T22:48:05","slug":"funny","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/?p=421","title":{"rendered":"Funny"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
I feel called to share my wit
to help people laugh and feel seen
and hold a moment of pleasure in 
These Times<\/em>

But when my ink hits the notebook 
my words flow red and weighty
barbed, ruthless, unsettling.

I cap my pen and exhale with force
toss my open journal to my husband
ask him to screen my latest piece
before it goes 
Live and unretractable
out into the world.

After a long silence
he lifts his head and ventures:
That's...dark, Babe.

Well it's reality, I retort.
Fine. 
Turn the page 
there's another!

After a quiet moment, 
he looks up through dark brows
and emits a short laugh-groan:
Um so that one's darker yet.

I swear I'm funny, I exclaim
I'm hil-arrrr-ious! 
Usually.
But I can't find it now.

He scrunches his forehead 
as he searches for his response:
You do have a bright and authentic
and sarcastic voice, you're funny--
but that voice is not here<\/em>. 

I muse aloud
I guess my comic is in hiding?
But she's in there
I know her--

Well, he says 
These lines reflect your mood...
Heavy.

I stare out the closest window
at windswept evergreens
while I gather my thoughts.

\"Heavy\" I repeat.
That's accurate, that's true.
Women carry the weight
and consequence of the many 
whims of rich white men in power.

He tilts his head 
nods up and down
in acknowledgement: 
Right.

I shoot him a half smirk
bounce my shoulders up to my ears
and assure him:
But my next poem will be a hoot!







<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
“Funny,” an acknowledgement of a heavy voice as shaped and weighed down by These Times. Written February 7, poem 038 in a series of 365 poems written by Diana Ludwick in 2026. Photo by Diana Ludwick (c) 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":425,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,2],"tags":[9,85,84,86,82,70,83],"class_list":["post-421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2026-poetry-challenge","category-poems","tag-humor","tag-mood","tag-on-writing","tag-reflection","tag-these-times","tag-women","tag-world-events"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=421"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":427,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421\/revisions\/427"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}