You sneaky Joy

You wait just ’round the corner
poised to … leap
just as soon as I
come your way.

There you are across the street
as I open the door to the new day.

Is that you who tickled me
as I watched the children playing
and the teens jostling
and the white-haired couple holding hands?

Surely it was you
who teared me up at the sight
of what I had always wanted
but didn’t know it, until just then.

Could you have been there, too,
when the man who had just lost his wife to cancer
handed me the empty dish
his wife had lovingly labeled with my name
so it might find its owner once she was gone?

Oh, Joy.
So surprised by you,
So disguised are you,
In your many faces,
many spaces,
hiding places,
deep recesses,
broad expanses.

You are stealth,
You are sneaky,
But I’ve got your number.
I see you.
I know you.
Because I have met you.
You are in me, of me, all around me.
You don’t scare me.

Oh, Joy.
Come.