Late Night Haiku

by Jeff Kulik

I miss late night talk
shows filmed in front of a live
laughing audience.

The insides of the
hosts' houses are depressing—
shockingly normal.

What would Steve Allen 
have done under such constraints?
Or Ernie Kovacs?

Would de Cordova
have produced a show inside
Johnny Carson's house?

Does a tossed card still
break the glass behind the host
with no one to hear?

I'll bet Dick Cavett
would have had something pithy
to say — or Truman!

Would it be too high-
risk for Larry "Bud" Melman
to get close to guests?

Would Jack Paar have walked
off of his own living room 
to spite the censors?

(I even long for
Morton Downey, Jr., if
you can believe that.)

Still, I end each night
in front of the TV set
hoping for the best.

But sometimes I close
my eyes and imagine I'm
laughing at Kreskin. ◊

JEFFREY KULIK is a lifelong Chicagoan and public servant who has previously been published in The American Bystander and Public Organization Review.

---