We need sadness

to know happiness

The tragedy is,

when we can't tell the difference

There is joy in company,

pleasure in warm embraces

sweetness in lost kisses.

But after,

that's just what they are.

Lost.

And also the very thing

We are.

Happiness helps us realize

loneliness, solitude, despair,

And how helpless life is

because of the very cycle

We call life.

After it all

we know what we are:

depressed, mournful

Lost; seeking for the happiness

That will make us

sad again.

Then we break

and crumble in tears.

When the dusk settles,

Night comes.  Life hides.  Death lives.

In sleep there is finally peace.

May 2000