Pursuit of Happiness

A tale as old as time 

But not worth a dime

What are we pursuing

In a world of suffering?

Piling on heaps of torture

For just a fleeting pleasure

Why is the futility not apparent

In our hankerings of the present

A baby doesn't plan anything Yet it marvels at everything 

The kids play on the ground

With their happiness unbound

The coming of age follows

Sadly, a harbinger of sorrows

The vitality of the youth

Drowned in professional couth

Vying for their living

In jobs very boring

For the cupid of love they do wait

Yet they gripe about their soul mate

Then on to parenting struggles

Striving for their child's giggles

Readying their children for life

Even while the miseries are rife

Life turns into a melancholy

As they inevitably grow elderly

Well, it is time to contemplate

Did life have to be desolate?

We grew wanting to be happier

But we only grew wearier

How do the kids don't plan

And still live life with elan

They are happy no matter what they do

We are sad no matter what we do

It's the Schrödinger's Cat, I ponder

Pursuit and Happiness, I wonder

We tend to think it is one for the other

The young ones experience them together

Does it have to be a Pursuit 'of' Happiness?

What if Pursuit 'is' Happiness?