Richard Tells A Joke

Richard tells a joke

And the audience

Is silent

Richard will be someone

Someday

But not today

Today he is

Not anybody

And his joke

Is not

Funny

Not to the audience

Who are people

Of a time

That will pass

Slowly, but still

It will pass

And when it passes

A new time will come

And with a new time

A new audience

Who will hear Richard’s joke

On a recording

He made

That he put out

Into the world

Not sure why

And like all things

It is discovered

Years later

And it is decidedly

Funny

For awhile

It is labeled

Objectively

Unquantifiably

Funny

Then more time goes by

And a new time eclipses

The time that was

And along comes

A new audience

Who says the joke

Was funny

At one point

But no longer is

Not that it never was

But it isn’t anymore

And some other people

Of the same time

Dispute this

And say because it once was funny

It still is and will always be

In some way

Funny

But Richard told the joke
He already told the joke

And he lived

And he died

And in between

He learned

How to be funny

For his time

He made movies

He made money

He made people laugh

With jokes

That are still funny

And jokes that were funny

And that jokes that will be funny

But aren’t funny right now

All things, even jokes

Are given opportunities

To be many different things

But not with immediacy

Not right now

And the frustration of life

Is that whatever you’re owed

Isn’t always given to you

When it would be

Most useful to you

For example, I didn’t love my husband

Until five years after we separated

Then love arrived

And I thought--

What good is this now?

This happened while

I was writing Richard’s biography

And I came across

The joke

Did I find it funny?

I found it amusing

Which is how you say--

I don’t find this funny

But I bet somebody will

At some point

Or somebody did

At some point

But I don’t now

And maybe I never would have

No matter what time

I was in

Richard tells a joke

And then another

And then another

Some land

Some fly

Some crash

Some get a laugh

Of all the things

You can get

With your effort

A laugh seems like

Not very much at all

But it’s all Richard wants

When he tells that joke

It’s all the joke

Is for

And nobody laughs

But one day

They will

So maybe the point is--

Tell the joke

Tell the story

Tell your ex

You’re sorry

You fucked up so bad

Because whatever is supposed to happen

Might not happen now

But is that what you’re looking for?

Are you looking for it

To get you an end result

Right now?

...Yes, you are

What good is it

After you’re dead and gone?

I guess there is no point

But then again

Richard’s joke

Didn’t have a point anymore

Maybe that’s why

Nobody thought

It was

Funny