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