Simple Happiness

Kenzie Barkac

     after Ada Limón

I’m learning so many ways to be happy. Like the way your feet sink into the sand as waves of saltwater hug at your ankles and a soft breeze passes over your shoulders. Like uncontrollable laughter bubbling up with friends you haven’t seen in a while. Like the warmth of your dog snuggled up on your leg and the way his tail sometimes wags, even just a little, when he hears your voice. Like the snap of a Thanksgiving wishbone, the satisfied silence on Christmas afternoon, or the clink of mugs cheering to a new year with cheap champagne. Like the way pancakes taste sweeter when they are made by someone you love and how the scent of maple syrup lingers on your skin long after breakfast. Like when you fill up the tank and stop the gas gauge on a whole number and how music sounds better in the rushing water of a carwash and how a good carwash can sometimes solve all your problems. Like a Skippy peanut butter jar that’s never been used, so smooth and perfect that you almost feel bad for disrupting its surface. Like the way a blurry photo seems to capture the moment better than the clear ones. It’s the simple things mostly.  

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