the mysterious place called happy...

Is happiness given or found;
Taken or lost?
The parody baffles all,
With the exception of a select few:
Those eating ice cream,
And have learned to laugh and play.

The soul and its frequent need to be reckoned with
Exhausts the resources within and without
Midst the perplexity of life’s pleasure and pain;
Longing frantically for the discovery of truth ,
Yet fancy the illusion of calm after a lie.

A child laughs, a mother cries;
Freedom lives, as another soldier dies;
Happiness, and all its ambiguity,
Comes with a price, just look at history.

Good and evil are joined at the hip,
Predestined to evolve without man’s consent.
From deep within the battle enhances,
Both with flirtatious glances.

“Dinners ready,” a mother announces.
A hungry boy scurries home, happy today;
But home would be happier,
If Daddy would stay.

Scientists congregate to explore the source of such a mood;
Philosophers hypothesize; Religionist’s theologize;
Politicians promise; and the medicine man rationalizes,
While children eat ice cream,
Laugh and play.

Cheerfulness is a season that no one expects will change.
Joy comes in the morning,
But night is on its way.

If such a precious fortune can be given,
The gamble of one more transaction, can take it away.
If such a treasure can be found by any and all,
Look where you step my friend,
It will be lost when you trip and fall.

Perhaps its value, although realized momentarily,
Is meant to be fully enjoyed in the restricted moment it’s contained.
In that instant, life as it was meant to be lived, is fully revealed,
As children eat ice cream,
Laugh and play.

~2010 Vaughn R Wood