The Sun Don't Shine on a Joke This Old

[Verse 1]
Sun came up like it always does
Orange and red and mean
Lit up the bottles on the floor
Lit up the holes in my jeans
I squinted at the horizon
And I asked it for a sign
It just kept on risin' anyway
Like it never heard of "mine"

[Chorus]
The sun don't shine on a joke this old
It's heard every punchline a thousand times before
It don't laugh, it don't cry, it don't wonder why
It just burns your back and climbs
The sun don't shine on a joke this old, boys
And I've been tellin' this one my whole life

[Verse 2]
Tried to find my shadow. It left sometime last week.
Guess even it got tired of followin' a man who couldn't speak
Speak the truth, that is. Lies came easy as a breath
But the truth just sat there in my throat, starin' at death

[Chorus]

The sun don't shine on a joke this old
It's heard every punchline a thousand times before
It don't laugh, it don't cry, it don't wonder why
It just burns your back and climbs
The sun don't shine on a joke this old, boys
And I've been tellin' this one my whole life

[Bridge — spoken, quiet, no performance left]
You ever tell a joke so long you forget what was funny about it in the first place?
I think it was... a man walks into a bar.
[long pause]
That's it.
That's the whole joke.
The man walks into the bar.
And then he never leaves.
[beat]
...I don't remember why I started laughin'.

[Instrumental break — just guitar and wind. A single fiddle note holds for a long time, then fades.]

[Outro — sung, barely there]
The sun don't shine on a joke this old
But it's gonna rise tomorrow just the same
And I'll be here or I won't be here
Either way, no one's to blame
The sun don't shine on a joke this old
So I'll stop tellin' it now
[long exhale]
...I'll just sit here in the dark
And let the sun show me how.

[last chord rings. Then the sound of a bottle rolling. Then wind. Then nothing.]

Outlaw Country, Acoustic guitar, male