My Daughter’s Laughter

As we lay in bed after enjoying the wedding of my daughter’s dearest friend, my wife leaned over to me,

She whispered, “I can hear our daughter laughing in the distance.”

I teared up and said to my wife that she just said the most poetic thing she’s ever said to me,

moreover, that she had brought so much happiness to my heart.

She shifted and looked right at me and in still a nice voice, but a bit firm,

she said, “No, really. I can HEAR our daughter laughing in the distance. Can’t you?”

I do have mild hearing loss, but I concentrated.

Sure enough, I heard the wild and unbridled cackle from my beautiful daughter that she may have inherited from yours truly,

for which I have been so frequently blessed or blamed,

Apparently those from the wedding, who were so much younger than my wife and I,

had gathered on the patio.

They really were not all that close.

Two stories down and about two hundred yards away,

yet my daughter’s laughter filled our room,

and our hearts just as it has for all these years.

When she smiles, she doesn’t do so politely or snidely,

She smiles with her whole heart.

And her laughter is a whole body experience.

When she laughs, I swear I could hear it for miles,

Once I finally give in and get hearing aids.

Nevertheless, for now I can hear her laughter whenever I open my eyes,

And listen with my heart.