Poem: The Laughter of Women

eddies grrleddies grrl Posts: 509
edited April 2004 in Poetry, Prose, Music & Art
Driving to work the other morning, I was overcome with the giggles as I danced in my seat to In My Tree. There's just something about that song that makes me so HAPPY. SO, in that spirit, I offer here a poem by the German-born poet Lisel Mueller:


The Laughter of Women

The laughter of women sets fire
to the Halls of Injustice
and the false evidence burns
to a beautiful white lightness

It rattles the Chambers of Congress
and forces the windows wide open
so the fatuous speeches can fly out

The laughter of women wipes the mist
from the spectacles of the old;
it infects them with a happy flu
and they laugh as if they were young again

Prisoners held in underground cells
imagine that they see daylight
when they remember the laughter of women

It runs across water that divides,
and reconciles two unfriendly shores
like flares that signal the news to each other

What a language it is, the laughter of women,
high-flying and subversive.
Long before law and scripture
we heard the laughter, we understood freedom.




The part about the prisoners gave me the goosebumps. I love this poem.
Life is the riddle
Of which we're caught in the middle.
A couple of lucky ones
Tangled up in too much love
~cowboy junkies
Post edited by Unknown User on

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