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.