Inheritance of Laughter
Original EveryPoem Studio house-voice poem.
I have her laugh—
the sudden kind
that startles birds from hedges
and makes strangers turn.
As a child I wished
she would laugh more quietly.
Now it escapes my own mouth
in the middle of a restaurant,
bright and impossible to fold.
Across the table, my daughter joins.
Three generations
refuse to whisper.
54 words · 12 lines · Free Verse