Elasticity

 
Laughter heals a lot of hurts.
~ Madeleine L’Engle

I watch my grandson
expand and retract on
the oval rubber band he
pedals his bike around.
Near enough to reach out
and catch the laughter he
tosses, and, in just a matter
of seconds, far enough to
transform into a tiny winged
hawk gliding over fathoms
of stretched octopus limbs,
seaweed dangling from their skin
in underlying currents dappled
with sunlit wind and shade.

There’s peace in a child’s
laugh that adults rediscover,
a long forgotten secret by
observing such a trusting
spirit who wants nothing
more than this second.
This is my heart’s wish
in writing poetry: a pure
desire to pen nothing
except Life in moments
of labored birth that will
expand into the world
as freedom, and retract
as laughter that hurting
spirits find easy to catch.
~