The Happy Fraud-Bernadette's View Poem by Lonnie Hicks

Happiness is a fraud-
the carrot at the end of my stick-
an illusion
meant to taunt me,
to persuade me,
to pursue
to beg
to plead
to make me endure what I shouldn't-
to humiliate me;
and I ask you
what is the content of this happiness anyway?

Is it true love?
Money and dollar bills lined up,
world peace,
change
staying the same
and never having to confront
anything I don't like?

What is happiness in all this?
Rich people aren't happy, they are mostly selfish and narcissistic and dangerous, because of their greed.

True Love often runs dry and murder happens, either in the soul
or in real life.

World peace?
Never happens.

Religion?
This has killed many
with God's name dripping from their lips.

Only thing I see that could be happiness
is what endures
and that is family,
which even if broken sometimes
is how I came here
and in the end
will rescue me from
all those false pursuits of happiness
in between;
and single-handedly
is the only thing
necessary and sufficient
to pursue the other
definitions
of Happy.