Being Happy

 Most of us know how it feels.

  It's how we always want to be:

  our lives a succession of golden moments

  without even the occasional shadow.

  It's kittens lapping milk in a wide bowl

  the child given an unexpected new toy

  a young dog chasing a ball across a field

  the man finding a bonus in with his pay.

  But it's hard to acquire or even

  to cultivate dependably.  Circumstances change.

  Accidents occur.  The unexpected big bad

  lands on us and flattens it.

  And we have to wonder

  whether we'd ever even work

  much less create the new

  if we lived possessed by it.

  The trouble with happiness is knowing the things

   that it alone and unalloyed cannot teach.

   In a life spent snug in continual sunshine

   would we even suspect the value of shade?