Let me not be fooled
by false happiness,
the narrow sense of sort-of comfort,
the condition-based, conditioned state
wherein, I’m told, I should be satisfied
considering how horrid things could be

Let me not be duped to think
I could be happy
while others suffered,
or could, somehow, deserve
a better life than others

Let me hold out for truth,
wherein the whole huge scam
of merit, fate, sin, reward and punishment
is annulled,
and we all shine forth
in primal innocence,
in native joy.

©Wendy Mulhern
November 15, 2014