An Old Joke

If you don’t mind, it don’t matter,

some old joke about age – and we laughed

and laughed and laughed until we forgot

was it was we were laughing at: some

old joke? about age? If you don’t mind?

For it does matter, age that is, when you’re older,

when you can’t remember where you put your keys

or the remote, glasses even, can’t remember what you

were just doing or going to do, why you walked into

that room in the first place, who you were going to call

or why you were calling, and the ghosts of other things

you’ve forgotten and can’t recall, things you had

no problem remembering before, some name, an old phone

number, an important date, who was that girl you didn’t

take to prom? These things were important to remember,

-- or at least we think they were important, must have been,

   or why else do we remember the image, if not the detail --

but then, maybe not, we just can’t seem to remember any more.

Age is just a matter of mind over matter!

If you don’t mind, it don’t matter,

and the joke is on us, so we laugh and laugh

and laugh some more, trying to remember

what it is we are laughing at.