The Oblivious Poet

So this friend of mine sent me (for the second time, just from him, not counting all the others,) a compendium of Jewish haikus. You've seen it. Of course you've seen it. Among them was the oldie but goodie,

Lacking fins or tail

the gefilte fish swims with

great difficulty.

I chided him with the instant response "Been making the rounds for years. I thought gefilte fish swim in jelly." I swear I didn't give it an instant's thought. Really.

He's more compulsive than I remember him to be. He counted the syllables and informed me that my reply was "cool." It took me longer to understand that I had written a haiku than it took me to write it.

My putative limericks never scan properly. Perhaps I picked the wrong poetic form in which to express myself.