Humor Week

JUNE MELBY


Spaceship                               
 
Once when I was twelve a spaceship came down and
announced they were going to give me a cake.  I said,
"Sure, sounds great," and removed the special occasion
tablecloth from the rarely-used closet. 

Once eaten the cake began to grow in each of our bellies.
Mine grew into a submarine replica.  Theirs grew into
Japanese flower arrangements and subatomic particles.

Eventually the cake was gone and it was time to go home.
We waved goodbye. They flew up and off.  I carefully
folded the special occasion tablecloth and stored it away
without removing the cake crumbs. 

In this way I can prove the existence of extraterrestrial
life at any time by simply opening my rarely used closet
and removing the tablecloth.  It has never been washed. 


Underwater

I recently went on vacation to the bottom of the ocean.
It was terrific!  We even had a barbecue!
Actually, it was pretty hard getting the fire started,
and then, the fish kept swimming off the grill.


Birds and Butterflies

Birds are not the same thing as butterflies. 
One has wings, and the other has wings.  But
one you can put between sheets of waxed paper
and press with an iron, and the other one you can't.

The Daily Palette: Humor Week

All this week, the Daily Palette will be celebrating some of our most amusing artists and writers! We hope you enjoy this selection of funny, silly, or even outrageous essays, stories, and works of art!


JUNE MELBY

June Melby's memoir, "My Family and Other Hazards," a story about her family's 1950s era miniature golf course in Wisconsin, was released on July 8, 2014 (Henry Holt & Co).  A former standup comedian, June has been published in McSweeney's Internet Tendency, Utne Reader, LAWeekly, Water~Stone, and Versal, among others.

About Iowa Writes

Since 2006, Iowa Writes has featured the work of Iowa-identified writers (whether they have Iowa roots or live here now) and work published by Iowa journals and publishers on The Daily Palette. Iowa Writes features poetry, fiction, or nonfiction twice a week on the Palette.

In November of 2008, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) designated Iowa City, Iowa, the world's third City of Literature, making the community part of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network.

Iowa City has joined Edinburgh, Scotland and Melbourne, Australia as UNESCO Cities of Literature.

Find out more about submitting by contacting iowa-writes@uiowa.edu

This page was first displayed
on September 05, 2014

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