Ways of Laughing
I look at the young women
in our class—Inola, my mother
is there in some of their eyes when they share
with each other whatever little they have: four pieces
of candy, two, or even three, are given away. On the lower back
of one is a tattoo, an adornment to beautify what is already
brown and beautiful, all of them wear colors
like the sky after a spring rain, moisture sparkling
in the atmosphere colored the most promising of colors, their
sharp voices are some times sweet, some times bitter
taking on the taste of their life experiences, their eyes
are so old to be housed in such youthful faces, despite
disasters they are still full of hope and the romanticism
of youth thinking that life is not uncaring, is not totally unfair, will
give them a chance to be something other than disappointed
like their earrings they come in all sizes and shapes, and different
ways of laughing
—kalamu ya salaam