Where is Joy?

Where is Joy?
I cannot find her.
I have been looking for her
in this panorama
of Chaos.
But she is not here.

Where is she, then?

I look to the south
and see only
madmen, mobs chanting,
preaching destruction to each other.
But Joy is not there.

I look to the north
and see only
a pale young child,
dying, unable to bear disease.
But Joy is not there.

I look to the east
and see only
a girl, not too old,
a small, smoky cylinder in her mouth,
a ruined school,
a broken family.
But Joy is not there.

I look to the west
and see only
another madman, holding
Fire in his hands, desiring to loose it on the world.
But Joy is not there.

Where does she lie, then?
I am looking,
searching,
with Hope as a partner,
yet Joy is not to be found.

She is not in the warring south,
the diseased north,
the drugged east,
the burning west,
not here.

Where is she, then?
Without her,
Hope is dying,
for neither can live without the other.
And if they are both gone,
who will be left to stand with
me?

Joy, where are you?