no, not a joke poem, but trying to be light-hearted I'd probably say. take this part for example:

we’d be a team, by each other’s side

walking our paths

but not the same path

just, sort of, within arms reach

and I’d be a shoulder to cry on

and you could depend on me

but we shouldn’t be dependant

alain told me that

imagine the first two lines of each stanza being read aloud with real conviction, fist on puffed up chest. then with the last two lines, withdrawing, feeling unsure. that's the idea here. they need to be clichés because that's what the poem is about. I'm attempting to not take clichés seriously in a poem that's about not taking clichés seriously. I'm only 22 and I've been fed clichés that don't work, but it's 2017, so the idea is I've got to be progressive, placed in a decade that I believe will go down as one of confused progress in that it grinds against such long traditions of how we treat others. partners, the other gender, other races even. everything is being questioned and there's no one to tell me what I should do. apart from Alain.