The Call Back

Comics talk about it a lot,
The joke late in the show that plays
On the audience recalling
A bit from back earlier.

People laugh because it’s clever,
But also because they’re clever,
It makes them feel clever, linking
The jokes, memory as pleasure.

Every morning that isn’t yet,
The brain, which is animal, swims
Up from the dark, shakes off its sleep
And reconstructs its sense of self.

What a clever comedian,
Each new day, waking, the call back
To a sly set of references.
You laugh at your resonances.