The Comic Bear
After: The Deadbeat Mermaid - by Matthea Harvey
Inspired by the painting - Magical Beast - by donna e perkins

The comic bear would have done better in a traveling 
theatre troupe.
Performing for faeries and unicorns is brutal.
They gag
on reheated anecdotes.
And they never forget
a joke.
 
Bear longed to tickle the funny bones of real
men with her knee-slapping narratives
and tales of trouble and transgressions.
She wished for women who would
guffaw at her naughty night fantasies.
 
She loved people for their deliciously short memories.
 
Bear knew she could delight strangers for eternity
in the right venue.
Where the audience changed
every night.
If not in the forest, perhaps she could perform on
cruise ships.
The same silly stories night after night under a full moon on a never-ending
waterbed.