Happiness

A state you must dare not enter
   with hopes of staying,
quicksand in the marshes, and all

the roads leading to a castle
   that doesn't exist.
But there it is, as promised,

with its perfect bridge above
   the crocodiles,
and its doors forever open.



"Happiness" from New and Selected Poems 1974-1994 by Stephen Dunn. Copyright © 1989. Used with the permission of W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.