Laughter

Some laughter is a hollowed mask
for sadness,
forced, not from the belly,
from a distance;
summoned with effort,
insisting that humour is really
despite all appearances
there.

Boasting that all has not been stifled.

Great comics
have been sometimes the loneliest
and perhaps the most hurt.

True humour needs a space of peace,
fully disclosing of the self,
and eyes that dance

And, gift of the Spirit,
is the other side
of weeping.