HAPPINESS WAS ONCE…

a metal sided wading pool

set up in the back yard

six feet across

adults having more fun

than we kids

though didn’t mind

watching eagerly

as they’d ‘initiate’

aunts and uncles

older cousins

some fully clothed

into the circle of water

beer and spirits flowing

in equal proportion

to the garden hose

needed to refill the spillage

now

but for photographs

the pool is long gone

as many of the adults

those remaining

much too sick

for drink and such frolic

and except for the ghosts

of Summers past

the back yard sits

void of laughter

and the company

that provided it where

…once was happiness

© 2001 Chris Sorrenti