I used to thrill the reliability
of old jokes and puns,
the older the jokes were
the better I felt when I got a reaction
from who I was with when I quoted them.
Even the jokes in the plays
of George Bernard Shaw,
a contemporary of Oscar Wilde,
could be made to be fun
if they were adjusted for tone.
As I have gotten older
I have run out of humour,
and I have accepted isolation.
I now have to be both the feed
and the punchline of any joke
I imagine. Often I prefer silence.
