Happiness is a Shared Experience

One may go off into a room
in pain, feeling ashamed,
feeling wrong or somehow one does not belong,
one has broken,
one's words bend back, it's no longer
just one thing,
but another and another,
one can't face anyone,

but happiness is something you are
in when you can share yourself
with others, when you are happy
in being yourself, engaging
with others, meeting on common ground,
smiling because one is understood.

there are even funny reasons we feel pained,
and in sharing that, there is even
a hint
of something, a communion of our hurt pride,
the vain constructs of illusions that we build
to make ourselves so superior,
but we can only be truly happy when
we completely belong, completely fit in,
we are, and that is
our express meaning.

and in knowing how cruel we can be
in trying to feel better
thinking that feeling better
means being better than another,
lying and cheating to be in the center,
we can smile,
being ourselves,
being someone who can be happy
in working together
to piece things together.