We Both Laughed / Ednah
Shir Lovett-Graff
The age of our bodies under siege / ends in a single laugh / you have
doubled over / crumpled in ecstasy / the most exquisite pattern
/ ruining transgression.
You laugh because / I touch all of you / you in completion is a
miracle / my cry is laughter, too / tears like sugar after a fast /
surprise / we taste euphoria in salt / we draw water from the dry
well / we reassemble the ruined dream coat / we gather the runaway
flock / we want more, more / we fall asleep laughing / blanketed in
heavy tonguing prayer.
Ruins of transgression / also called temples / temple-worshippers /
also called trans bed-makers / self-namers, rupture-rousers,
crevice-worshippers/ crowd-teasers, dynamite-extractors,
disciplinarians / people who laugh because they have to.
The state of prayer is stable / as desire / and curious as silence /
between touches / if you must laugh / please leave the sanctuary /
and if you re-enter / muffle your sigh / G!d is a private thing / we
whisper the name / over and over / again.
“I’ve tried to learn to live without affection, but I can feel it eating me from inside,” We Both Laughed in Pleasure: The Selected Diaries of Lou Sullivan
And Sarah laughed within herself, saying: “Now I am worn out, and my husband so old— am I to have pleasure still?” Genesis 18:12