after Richard Rorty

Laughter
occurs sporadically, a bit forced
through tight lips and tensed jaw.
It comes laced with guilty pleasure and rebellion,
an antidote to the numbness of inertia.

Sorrow
flows and floods
can overwhelm even the light of day.
It too brings on a species of numbness
that might enable the heart to heal.

Irony
In other words, salt everything.
After all there is only a point of view,
the laughter and sorrow it brings,
and the irony of contingent solidarity.