Happiness
A plump rosy-cheeked man
Stood alone in the street
He wore a red coat
And had shiny shoes on his feet.
In his arms was a box
Labeled ‘HAPPINESS’ in bold print
It was all gold and glittery
In sunlight it would make you squint.
The street was empty and quiet,
The air had a slight chill,
Suddenly a car sped right past him,
Then brakes squealed as it came to a standstill.
The car reversed backwards
All the way to where the man stood
A woman in high heels got out
As quickly as she could.
Her eyes were wide with desire,
“I must have that box”, she told the man
She became so flustered waiting for his answer
That she had to pull out a little pocket fan.
She held out a handful of shiny gold coins
As he ‘ummed’ and ‘ahhhhed’
Finally he came to a decision
And shook his head hard.
The woman begged and she pleaded
She even bribed him with her antique shawl,
But still he resolutely refused her
The one thing she wanted above all.
When at long last she gave up
Got into her shiny car and drove away,
The plump man wondered
If indeed he should stay.
Then, with sound of the engine
Not too long gone
He noticed a young girl
Just strolling along.
Her feet were bare
There was no one at her side
He called out in a loud voice, “Yoo hoo!”
She looked up, innocent and blue eyed.
With one finger he beckoned her over
And offered her the box,
But when she politely declined he was flummoxed
And looked down at his socks.
Never before had this happened
Looking up again he asked, “Can you not read?”
Pleasantly she smiled and told him
“I can sir, but that’s something I don’t need”.
He was taken aback
And didn’t know how to respond
Perhaps the child simply didn’t understand
So naive and so blonde.
As she skipped off she turned and called out
“I have it already, I make it myself, you see”
And in that moment he thought that perhaps
The one who didn’t understand was he.
