The pitfall of missing context.
Our grins are rueful rictuses.
"At least it's a friendly hostility."
"Not much fun in Stalingrad."
"But it's sunny at McMurdo!"
The private language of metaphor shared by my partner and me, who've been together more than a quarter of a century.
The last decade of constant teetering on a cliff's edge has strained our tolerance of what Life finds amusing to throw at us.
We have moments when our gallows humour fails us. But we brace ourselves with visual puns pulled from webcomics, with Monty Python quotes, and with ironic weather reports.
We get through our days trying to not to shatter.
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This is my entry for therealljidol, Season 9, Week 1 - Jayus.