While Rome burns The further I travel into the comic realm The darker gets the view Comedy is a mechanism For coping with trauma Yet the closer it brings us To life’s tragic ironies (It is nihilistic) It eclipses sublimity One only sees the puppet strings There’s a reason so many funny people Kill themselves For there is cold comfort there Comedy is not a cry in the night A speech before heading into battle The tending to the weak & maimed It is beyond tears the muzzle Like an invalid’s crossword puzzle While Rome burns Published & Copyright Malachi Doyle 2025.