REQUIREMENTS FOR JOY.

I hope everyone has enough

food, water, shelter,

friends and family to support true joy;

we get helter-skelter

when we confuse joy

with being eternally happy

over a new toy,

and those kinds of people

are so perpetually taxing—

like grown adults who need

some big fuss about their birthday—

really Mitchel you’re maxing

my patience in the worst way,

because you’re 43 and I think it’s high time

to make peace that it’s not

your first time around the sun, Sunshine.

Prizing relationships

and only needing a few simple things;

these go hand in hand

with love of each other and care for land.

Epicurus was wise, traveler, when he told you,

“The things you actually need are few,

and easy to acquire,

but the things you can think of wanting

are infinite and you will never be satisfied.”

At first it will seem daunting,

but have you tried

swimming in it?

What are the few requirements for joy?

Everything else you can avoid,

and if you are annoyed…

it is conviction creeping into the void

between you and the peace that is inevitable

if you de-own all of your things

and grow vegetables

while you drink wine

with a true friend in a chair.

It is there, where every other destination

will be beyond care—

like Jack Sparrow heavily invested in Vanguard

it will make little sense

to go beyond the needs of your heart.