Heartbeats

Happiness is.

Not a moment,

but collective feeling.

You can't pick it up,

unless it has a heartbeat.

You can't define it, because

it is ever-changing.

It's a feeling that comes when you close your eyes

and receive a kiss unexpectedly.

It is also a box with many hearts

captured in photographs.

It is music because of the clash of the symbol

and steady beat of the stretched leather

which used to be the skin to the gentle, black-eyed

bovine.

Sleeping babies against the skin of your chest

is happiness,

even with sticky sweat and heat of the summer,

no AC, just feeling your heart swell in that heat.

It's relief from clutter, physical and emotional.

Happiness will always be changing,

and not ever-present,

making every moment it blossoms

more important than the last.