The All-Day Comedy Club
Sister infuriates Brother by doing a monologue
in the dog’s sweet earnest cartoon voice, about how much
the dog hates Brother. Dog says, “Whenever I see him
I want to light myself on fire.” Brother howls in rage.
I try to stomp down my giggles but fail, pleasing Sister,
pouring gas on Brother. Everything escalates, dog’s
voice, daughter’s glee, son’s protests, my laughs. Tears
all around, and “paroxysmal, expiratory breathy respiration.”
According to the biology of humor, deaf babies laugh,
and we are thirty percent more likely to laugh out loud
with company. When a Navajo infant first laughs,
Dad throws a party. Tickled rats laugh ultrasonically.
Chimps, gorillas, and orangutans chortle too. Twenty laughs
equal three minutes on a treadmill. Later at a dinner with aunts,
my gut aches from holding it in, as Brother, with evil gleaming
eyes, tells Sister, “I look at you and see thirty years of sadness.”
in the dog’s sweet earnest cartoon voice, about how much
the dog hates Brother. Dog says, “Whenever I see him
I want to light myself on fire.” Brother howls in rage.
I try to stomp down my giggles but fail, pleasing Sister,
pouring gas on Brother. Everything escalates, dog’s
voice, daughter’s glee, son’s protests, my laughs. Tears
all around, and “paroxysmal, expiratory breathy respiration.”
According to the biology of humor, deaf babies laugh,
and we are thirty percent more likely to laugh out loud
with company. When a Navajo infant first laughs,
Dad throws a party. Tickled rats laugh ultrasonically.
Chimps, gorillas, and orangutans chortle too. Twenty laughs
equal three minutes on a treadmill. Later at a dinner with aunts,
my gut aches from holding it in, as Brother, with evil gleaming
eyes, tells Sister, “I look at you and see thirty years of sadness.”
Tina Kelley’s fourth poetry collection, Rise Wildly, is forthcoming in 2020 from CavanKerry Press, which also published Abloom and Awry (2017). Ardor won the Jacar Press 2017 chapbook competition. Her other books are Precise (Word Press), and The Gospel of Galore, winner of a Washington State Book Award. She co-authored Almost Home: Helping Kids Move from Homelessness to Hope, and reported for The New York Times, sharing in a staff Pulitzer. Her writing has appeared in Poetry East, Southwest Review, Prairie Schooner, and Best American Poetry. She lives with her husband and two children in Maplewood, New Jersey.
My children inspired this. As an only child, I had no experience with, and am continually aghasted by, the knack siblings have for finding each other’s tenderest nerve, and yanking it, in shocking and funny ways that make it impossible for me not to laugh really, really hard.
My children inspired this. As an only child, I had no experience with, and am continually aghasted by, the knack siblings have for finding each other’s tenderest nerve, and yanking it, in shocking and funny ways that make it impossible for me not to laugh really, really hard.