Poetry Report: Happiness
“Happiness, is not making the news.”
Happiness, is not making the news.
+ + +
The Thin Rope
He wakes, still tied to the world
by a thin line of hope. He
watches the rope rise
up out of his chest
and through the ceiling,
like he's a small dock
and the ceiling,
a massive cruise ship.
Something is holding onto
the other end up there, he thinks
something with strong hands,
ready to yank at any minute.
Ready to save or maybe
ready to kill.
It's not for him to know,
apparently.
The news is on somewhere
in the house and he can hear
all the wrong things
that happened yesterday
listed carefully
by an articulate voice.
He looks up at that rope again.
Up there, he thinks, in the room
with the strong hands
there's a news show on too,
but with everything that didn't
happen yesterday listed carefully
by an articulate voice.
A man didn't shoot a teenager
over loud music. Four weren't
killed in a car crash with
a school bus. There was no
drought in California. Syria
didn't murder any of its own people.
It occurs to him that
maybe this news program
is called Happiness.
He wonders if this thought
is enough
to start the day on.
He decides it is
and so it begins.
+ + +