Poem: He Told Bad Jokes

He Told Bad Jokes

that made no one laugh,
but he enjoyed them,
even though they never were funny
and less funny each time
when he said the same one again,
because he had some that came up
almost every day, or more than that,
each conversation with him
might be peppered with them,
and he thought it was funny, I think he did.
He is dead so long now, 
but I think he thought it was funny
or perhaps it was an affectation,
the way he believed a grandfather should be.
I do not know what motivated him
or why it was his way, but I know
he had once been a rougher man
and had learned a kindness from it.
I wonder what was still a performance,
what had he become by will
and what resided in his nature.

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