Gallows Humor in the Family

Gallows Humor in the Family
The diagnosis arrived in the kitchen—
my father at the table, the stitching
of the moment where the family learned
the thing, and my brother turned
to me and said the wrong-right thing,
the dark joke in the suffering
of the news, and we laughed together,
all four of us, in the weather.
Gallows humor in the family—the dark
laugh in the kitchen, the mark
of the surviving, the wrong-room funny
that the family runs on. The money
of the dark joke: the together
in the bad news, the whether-
you-want-to-or-not laugh.
The family laugh: behalf.
We’ve always done this—the pointed
joke at the terrible, the jointed
response of the people who love each other
and know the bad is coming. My brother
has the timing, my father has
the delivery, and my mother has
the best one-liner in the family.
The dark joke: our anatomy.
The gallows laugh is the realest—
the families that run the cruelest
jokes at the worst times are the ones
who’ve learned the truth: the runs
of the dark funny are the seam
of the surviving. The family’s dream
deferred becomes the family’s bit.
The gallows humor: we’re in it.