Joseph and Judah and Benjamin
and all the rest
And me I’ve got mine too so I know
what anyone knows
if they came from a womb that some other human also
inhabited
That there is no escaping where you came from;
That family reunions are never simply
simple –
neither all joy nor all buttons pushed
but some sick and vital combination thereof.
These are the people who know you best
and who misunderstand you
the most
Who share your DNA but rarely your
perspective
The people who “remember you when”
but don’t always see you Now
for who you are
And yet they show up
Because that’s family.
That’s family.
Joseph’s brothers will never tell him
they are proud of
what he has accomplished,
of how he’s survived
And he will never tell them
how he wishes to be one
of them
And not apart
They will be jealous and intimidated
He will be lonely,
envious of their ease with one another
An ease he’s never been able to feel
nor fake
And yet they come together
to bury their father
and they grow old
together
in the land where they are strangers
Despite their differences they are one tribe
Because that’s family.
That’s family.
