The Islands of Happiness

Rishibh Prakash POETRY

Ahoy dear captain and welcome on board

Here is your hat and here is your sword

The islands of happiness are the first stop We’ll be there quite quick with a jump, skip and a hop

Quite a place, you’ve described it to be A place full of happiness and joy and glee

Where people are happy and lead happy lives

There are happy husbands and very happy wives

The children are happy going to happy school

Where summers are happy and winters are too

Where frowns are frowned upon and smiles are miles long

It took but a day for the isles to appear Just up ahead, so very, very near

Yet the faster we move the further they seem Standing on the horizon, so brightly they gleam

There remain other ships, braving the seas

All heading to the islands, like pods of peas

“Why do others reach the isles with such great ease?

Are the islands of happiness not destined for me?”

You look to the horizon and harden your gaze

You start growing angry, fearing your ways

You curse and you scream, telling us we failed

“What’re you doing? Have you never sailed?”

You storm into your room and lock yourself in And like an old friend, a storm rolls in For days and days the waves toss us around Some of us very nearly drowned

Then, the wind grew quiet and the waves were calm And you came out, with your head in your palm

You said you were sorry for everything you’d done

“I didn’t mean a word of it, not a word, not one.”

You are our captain and we love you still

It’s water under the bridge, or the boat, if you will

And we start the repairs, as you help with a smile

It’s quite wonderful, haven’t seen it in a while

The work takes days, as we knew it would But it doesn’t seem as bad as it really well should

Because the days were clear and the stars were bright We even had a day when we flew high a kite

The isles seemed no closer, but we didn’t mind For a beautiful bird, we had managed to find.

Inspired by CGP Grey’s YouTube video: “7 Ways to Maximize Misery”