Forgive, O Lord, my little jokes on Thee, And I'll forgive Thy great big one on me.

In two rhymed lines, the speaker addresses God with a tone that is simultaneously playful and wounded. The “little jokes” suggest minor irreverences—human skepticism, gallows humor, or casual blasphemies—while God’s “great big one” implies the far heavier “joke” of human suffering, disappointment, or the apparent absurdity of existence. The bargain (“I’ll forgive…”) reverses the usual hierarchy of penitence: instead of only humans seeking pardon, the speaker claims moral standing to pardon God. The couplet captures a modern, Frost-like tension between religious language and existential grievance, using wit to voice protest without abandoning the address to the divine.