Position:Home>Poetry> What kind of family jokes are you the brunt of, do you laugh, too?

Stopped at a gas station in the black of night
the pressure of a full bladder awakens me
I pry myself from the entangled arms of siblings
we three asleep in the back bench seat

I make my way alone to the paint chipped door
with the picture of the lady painted on it
one quick glance at my dad's form
cast in shadows by the single bulb above him
while he fills the old Buick again!.


I empty myself standing over the smelly bowl
legs spread wide, not touching skin to seat
the soap is too high on the wall to reach
so I hold my hands over the rusted sink
allowing water to splash them clean
stained linen towel in the shiny machine
too far overhead to grab so
I wipe on my pink pajamas front

the door creaks as I slowly push
and turn to look for the car
the car
the car is not there
my dad is not there
no one is there
but me

they left me alone in the dark
that night in Ajo, Arizona
just four I was as I sat upon
that oily stoop and waited
waited for them to return
an hour for every year it took
and during that wait
deep in my core
I discovered my lifetime
truth

I was
invisible
if my absence was not seen
how could my presence be!?

The family joke, told with knee slapping laughter!?

"Remember when we left Susie at that gas station and drove for two hours until we realized she was missing and had to turn back to get her!?
Remember how scared she looked when we pulled up and found her sitting there!?"
HAHHAHHHAHAHAHA




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