Ode to Elijah’s Laughter – a poem by Julia Bonadies

Ode to Elijah’s Laughter

Your laughter sounds
like the forgiveness
I have never been able
to offer myself.

Whole, pure, and healing.
A song of redemption—

Raise my right hand
over your heart and I might
leave it there, so I can feel
where your joy is born

and name that place
what we have no language
to contain.

 

By day, Julia Bonadies is an 8th-grade English teacher at Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts Middle, and by night she is a professional writing tutor at Manchester Community College. Her work most recent work can be found in The Chronicle, Halfway Down the Stairs, and NEATE’s The Leaflet.

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