Today I think of those sappy old comics
With the Happiness is tagline
But I am. My daughter is healthy and happy
and made it through all the choppy years
to reach this moment. Fog is lifting
on this morning road, the dog beside me calm and
glad to be chewing the cardboard coffee sleeve
and on the radio Alison’s* voice sends Christina
Rosetti’s poems out over the hills —
And it all rises up in me and names itself.
Nothing for it but the truth. This? This is happiness.
*Plus, I just wrote my first poem with a footnote! Hurry up and listen to Alison McGhee’s poetry podcast, Words By Winter. You’ll be so glad you did.
Puff Of Smoke Poems 