Dad Joke

The dad joke’s no deep dive:
         a contact trace,
        the beer goggles of humor,

but he thinks it’s Patient Zero,
         steampunk and virtual reality in one.

Really, man, it’s yuppie flu,
         physician-assisted suicide that will not die,
         an over-used emoticon under-performing.

Who can we diss, though?
         Genomics? It’s something beyond himself,
         scripting language in the bone,
         a molecular chaperone gone rogue.

It’s the comedy of ADHD,
         all acid-washed and out of date,
         but bad as bioterrorism.

Dear Daddy,
         be my BFF, my food-coma father—
         pack your prepress puns inside

your mind’s messenger bag.
         I’d call you loony,
         if that didn’t cut Canadians.

Still, sometimes I hold your ha ha’s
         in my hand like a palmtop.
         Just trying is a tentpole for true love.

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Bryn Gribben is a poet and essayist who left academia to explore antiques.  Her essay “Cabin” was nominated for a 2019 Pushcart Prize, and she was a finalist for the 2021 Creative Nonfiction Porch Prize, as well as a finalist for the Peseroff Prize in poetry.  Bryn’s first book, a musical memoir, Amplified Heart:  An Emotional Discography, was published by Otherwords Press in 2022. She lives in Seattle with two cats and a love song of a partner.