punchline in poetry

it was funny once
but only a little bit
back when we would say things like
“I’m just putting off success until
I’ve built up enough experience and
humility, my failures have all been
a tactically applied defense against
turning into an entitled asshole”

it was funny once
but only a little bit
back when we would say things like
“hang onto the time sheets I signed
in a few years, when I am big-time
they will be worth a lot of money
doncha know, not only as autographs
but as documentary ephemera evidence
of who I was before I was who I’ll be”

it was funny once
but only a little bit
because it was always only half-a-joke
because we were kidding on the square
we were innocent enough
we were ignorant enough
we were arrogant enough
to believe that it was
all about to happen

it is uproariously funny now, of course
to be saying it now
now that we know it
will never happen
life has beaten us
has beaten this joke
down from being self-effacing power-fantasy
to bitter fucking grousing
to whips flagellated across
our now-stooped-over backs
our knuckles bloody now
our hearts broken now
we didn’t know then
that innocent
and ignorant
and arrogant
were all the same thing
in all the ways that mattered
we didn’t know then
that we weren’t making a joke
rather that we were the joke
but now we know
and it’s so goddamned funny

it’s so funny it hurts