As soon as I read today’s fortune, I remembered one particular night. You see, I love to laugh, but sometimes I think I’ve forgotten how. Then I have a moment when laughter lights up my heart again. I know this fortune is true, but I don’t always know how to make it true for myself.

Maybe that’s how we all are, to a certain extent. Surviving day to day.

I can say that nine times out of ten, when I find myself in that warm light of laughter, it’s with my kids, the human beings I love most in this world. And that’s what this poem is about.

I chose to write it in haibun format, which was invented by Matsuo Basho, the master of the haiku. A haibun is a prose poem and a haiku smashed together. I’ve attempted them before. I think this one works, to a certain extent.

I hope you enjoy it, anyway!

laughter shall fuel your spirit’s engine
By Michelle Garren-Flye

They dragged you out, these children who have grown into friends. You’re usually bathed and in bed by now. Tomorrows are always full. You have to be ready. But they want to have fun. They want you to have fun, but fun is not something you practice. There are too many tomorrows ahead, too many yesterdays behind. 

The golf place is full, but you have a reservation. They serve beer, so you have some, hoppy smells tickling your nose hairs. The lights are bright, and there is a heater nearby so even though you’re outside in January and there will be snow tomorrow, you take off your coat. Frustration mounts with every golf swing, until your oldest son misses the ball entirely and yells, “Fun!”

And there it is, bubbling around you, the energy needed to fuel your spirit, as first you and then your children who are now adults and friends—your yesterdays and your tomorrows—shout it together, hurl it into the night air with the white golf balls hailing onto the astroturf:

giggling bubbles
burble in your life spirit
laughter is your peace