a child's laughter

A child's laughter rings
and then fades
in a breeze that circles outward
and touches the water’s edge
and becomes memory
in the ever-changing dance of what is heard and unheard
in a quiet where laughter becomes laughter
where memory becomes memory
in the eternal play of all that will be
and already is
from a beginning where the voice carried joy
before the laughter became a whisper
and since then always echoed in us