The Futility of Blithe Happiness

Three things keep one from blithe happiness:
One is he shall away, and thus depart
All things accepted as inveterate.

The second is he knows not on which day
He must submit to absolution from
Communing with salvation, or himself.

The third, the woe which lingers in the mind,
The waxing overture of every thought,
He does not know which his deliverance
Will be: either internal paradise
Or dark designs, revulsion on the wheel.

But, if unpilloried by destiny,
One might discover that a flower’s bud
Must be broken before its blossoming.