melted

google "comedic segways"

i remember the day i started being funny.

you were the reason, so of course i remember us, young and fresh and green with crabapple-tainted grass stains running nowhere. running everywhere.

nintendo and irish folk songs in our sights, you hummed along to my chatter, and my stoic facade dissipated with the proposals of swingset dates and fresh lemonade.

gaffigan in our past turned to sprinkles of salt and pepper when you edited photos on the tech desktop instead of your job. recall the supervisor stifling her laughter with coughs, your timing perfectly chiming along with the deadpan delivery. recall your cousin splayed across the news desk, convulsing laughter-chokes, recall my throat aching with longing for more.

and we found more, in sorries and symphonies from comedic composers, burnham and mulaney, forte and samberg, you and i, catching our breath, three beats of rest in the midst of a punchline.

you, verging on sixteen, floating in the clouds, a natural at humor, brought me along for the ride, immature stains never truly fading even as the sun would day after day.

i'm trying to be funny now, and you understand, because there's nothing worse than running out of energy, running out of material.

just keep laughing with me, that's all i ask.