Joy Is Not A Trick

After Joy Sullivan

Photo by Suad Kamardeen on Unsplash

Joy is not a trick,
not a ruse or a scheme or a device to outwit you or
entrap you or grab the rug out from under your feet -
joy is supposed to be there
for you
to eat and
to enjoy and
to relish every time your heart skips a beat;
it’s homemade pasta with the extra parmesan cheese
the champagne bubbles as they dance upon your tongue
the way a single look from them makes you feel like you
are a model sashaying down the street;
it’s in the books that make you lose yourself
and the music that makes you find yourself
and the mountains that remind you that heaven is also
a place on this earth;
joy is there for the taking —
no backsies,
no returns,
no conditions, limitations, or
lines that you must color in,
Joy is not a trick.