I’ve calmed down in recent years. I used to get into verbal fights, but I’ve learned to hold my punch lines. It’s not so easy - sometimes, they write themselves. I have a friend named Joy, who's diagnosed with depression. I’ve taken a cooking class from a vegetarian kid named Hunter. Heck, my name is Tanner, and I’m white as snow. When my blind buddy raised his hand in Calculus and said, “I don’t see the point,” I didn’t even smirk. I don’t comment on pedestrian chickens, Never speak a word about people walking into bars, Forget asking about yo mama, I stick to paternal questions. I’ve come a long way, I think. I especially don’t make fat jokes. Well I’ve never made fat jokes. I know they’d haunt me for forever, Because elephants never forget.
Editor’s note: Tanner would like to give a “shout out” to Daniel Teets’ poem, “Bad at Writing” for inspiring the syntax and diction used in this poem.