Today’s Mint Sells Happiness

Rohee Dholakia

 

Poets write of loss and emptiness.

 

“Change your thoughts, they aren’t complex enough.

There is no depth in your poetry.”

 

I, Happy new year

the people

who have made me

Unhappy last year

 

I teach children

So, I can be one of them,

a brown leaf trying to turn red.

 

I write, rewrite and rewrite

to act mature in my words.

Funny they ask you

to be

when they mean

to act.

 

Does acting come from within?

 

I too want to be all light and shine,

but I cannot brave an indifferent face.

 

Unlike some!

They do not like

the things they do not like

and I cannot like

the things I do not like.

 

I carry a shingled skin with dappled spots,

And an accommodative smile

And a greeting-card voice

And I…

 

I am trying to play with words

While a child is happy with broken twigs and clay.