Tag: laughter

An engraving after a photograph of Teresa Stolz (1834–1902): a Bohemian-born soprano and one of Verdi's favorite singers. She famously sang Aida in the opera's European premiere at La Scala in 1872. Here she stands in a confident three-quarter pose, her right hand planted on her hip and her left arm hanging relaxed at her side. She gazes off to the left with a serious, determined expression, with strong dark brows and a steady stare. Her long, dark, wavy hair falls past her shoulders. The costume is an elaborate 19th-century theatrical idea of an Ethiopian princess: A jeweled band across her forehead with a large round ornament at the temple, topped with a plume of feathers, long drop earrings, a broad beaded collar necklace in an Egyptian style, armbands on her upper arm, and bracelets on both wrists. Public domain. For “My P.U.”

“My P.U.” and Other Poems by Paul Hostovsky

aromatica poetica October 6, 2026

Crumbs Whenever she ate she talked about food, all the magnificent repasts of her past, with her mouth full. And he’d sit across from her and watch the food on her plate grow smaller and more insignificant with each description of some towering feast or exquisite confection of her youth. She’d close her eyes to remember, shaking her head as if to say, “No, you can’t really see it from here.” Then she’d open her eyes and he’d feed on …

Drawing of colorful potatoes—brown, red, purple, yellow—in a wood bucket floating on a Hubble deep field image of galaxies.

“Emily as Cometary Grains” * Poetry * Darren Demaree

aromatica poetica March 10, 2023

Settled on the second hill of our marriage, three times alive & thrown through the throat of our own love, all we do now is laugh at everything. We have sex laughing. We talk about which revolution we want while laughing. We make meals that are four kinds of potatoes and we laugh about the fifth. I tell her I want to blacken the sky so others can see her how I do & she laughs at that, too. Six …