(Originally published in Voices Along the River: The 1999 San Antonio Poetry Fair, edited by Valerie Martin Bailey, pp. 65-66.)

Life is a tragic tale of trials and tribulations.

Yet, we go about these lives, and try to deal with our frustrations.

Happiness, though uncommon, is a miracle to behold.

Those who do obtain it, are the beautiful and the bold.

We wait in prolonged sorrow, through the horror, and the dread.

We speak of fantasy.

Soon, the truth becomes unsaid.

Some souls stick around and wait for something more.

Others, often weaker, take an easy, EXIT door.

Finally, the day comes when the holy light is shed.

When that light comes ’round, it goes to someone else instead.

You weep bitter tears of hopelessness.

You’ve taken all you could.

You cry out to God, “Why does this happen to the good?”

You dry your tears of terror, “Life has not been fair!”

Then you finally realize what you somehow always wanted,

was somehow always there.