Unexpected

Unexpected

Have you ever fallen in love with Someone's Laugh

For instance and especially when It seems to come from nowhere

And is not in response to anything that was just said

Or a present awkward situation

Or anything like that

If It is from a person I have not just met but known awhile

Days weeks months or years

Long enough that I've heard their customary laugh before

Say at jokes or funny lines of a comedy

And then if this particular

Someone's Laugh produces a sound

I have never heard before

In a higher register or a lower register

Or sort of snorting or chortling or guffawing

Uncharacteristically

Or sounding like a chipmunk or a chimpanzee

And not caring a whit whether anyone thinks

It sounds like a chipmunk or a chimpanzee

Then I have been in the presence

For a fleeting moment anyway

Of absolute, guileless honesty

And I love that

And In Love may be only one laugh away

Biography: James B. Nicola is the author of eight collections of poetry, the latest three being Fires of Heaven: Poems of Faith and Sense, Turns & Twists, and Natural Tendencies. His nonfiction book Playing the Audience: The Practical Actor’s Guide to Live Performance won a Choice magazine award. A graduate of Yale and returning contributor to ZiN Daily, he has received a Dana Literary Award, two Willow Review awards, Storyteller's People's Choice award, one Best of Net, one Rhysling, and eleven Pushcart nominations—for which he feels stunned and grateful.

Image: Unsplash, downloaded (https://unsplash.com/photos/a-drawing-on-a-concrete-surface-TNgH32jeQXY) 30. 3. 2026.

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