Indelible in the hippocampus is the laughter.

We live our entire lives in the punchline of a joke --
one we hear only faintly, from the opposite end of the room,
uttered in tenor and baritone and bass and sometimes even alto barbershop quartets,
accompanied by hand gestures creative and lewd,
and when we scream from inside the joke because we at least want to hear it,
(although it would sound the way your own chewing sounds inside your head)
well then we must be
hysterical
bossy
hysterical
imaginary
hysterical
and certainly on the rag.