Light Holiday Fare

Most of the creative nonfiction and poetry I write tends to end up feeling fairly serious, albeit with a tiny twist of dry humor threaded throughout, rising along the surface of the piece every so often.  But sometimes it’s good to abandon oneself to a hearty belly laugh.  Here’s a poem I wrote about the importance of laughter which was published in The Black Boot, Issue 8.  And have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!

Laughing Babies

*

In seventh grade I was sent

to the principal’s office six times for laughing,

my giggles chronic hiccups

that rode the curb like a skateboard

until I wanted to bail from fear of the crash.

I held on, never jumped.  My girlfriends

and I were making fun for ourselves.

*

Have you heard the commercial

with the laughing baby?

Not a smiling infant, slippery pink gums

peeking from behind the O

of the open baby mouth,

not tentative giggles

searching out questions for the world.

But a big baby guffaw, a Mississippi of sound

catching me in the solar plexus

where my own laugh begins.

*

We’re hardwired for this hidden language,

more powerful than books

or paintings.

We laugh together

and at nothing at all.

###

In the spirit of laughter, here’s a website devoted to laughing babies:

http://www.break.com/topics/laughing-babies

and another:

http://www.laughingbabies.org/

And here’s one of the laughing baby videos from Youtube: