Laughter © Poem by Roann Mendriq

It pierced through the air, a banshee scream,
I awoke in a fright, was it a dream?

I crept to the window and peered through the grill,
And shivered to hear, convulsive and shrill...

wild, manic laughter; the hysterical kind,
The sort of loud laughter that brings to mind

hyenas that howl over their fallen prey,
My heart began pounding, my face turned to grey;

The laughs fells to a giggle then swelled to a roar,
Manic and helpless, then died to a crow...

Sniggers and snorting, titters of glee,
I trembled, shivered, what could it be?

Then I remembered, the old lady next door,
And how she had giggled at the grocery store,

She had laughed at the jelly and lost her wits,
collapsed in the aisle, and died of laughing fits...

I had thought it quite droll, dying of laughter!
Perhaps she had heard me, from the ever after...

It sounded again, a thud and a screech,
Hysterical laughter that deprived me of speech.

I peered thru' the window, my knuckles were white,
T'was the children next door, playing pillow-fight...