Simple Question

How happy are you?
Simple question, really,
on a scale from ten to one,
you'd think reply would come
without a blink or hesitation.
We are complex creatures,
though, so simple questions
often carry complex overtones.
It takes determination to divorce
our own heart's joy from that
of ones around us, or the way
that they relate to us at
any given time, but try. Just you,
alone, this minute, knowing all
the rest that's going on. A one,
depressed, oppressed, suppressed,
distressed at life, you're done with
hope and love, checked out, without
a glimmer of fulfillment, romance,
fun? Or ten, you stand atop the mountain,
bountiful with bliss, a fountain of
fantastic welling up within, the pinnacle
of pleasantness, the giddiness that goes
along with gladness permeating every
pore. As for me, and knowing what
I know, and who I know, and that I know
(although the future is unclear)
that I'm secure and loved and fool
enough to feel that faith is real,
I'd have to rate my happiness at
eight, with spurts of threes when all
I see around is stress and strain,
living for life-saving spurts of tens
when...


(c) Ellen Gillette, 2013