The Echo Inside Happiness

Happiness arrives beautifully, already carrying the quiet ache of goodbye.

Happiness always arrived
like a visitor already checking the clock.

Even in the middle of laughter,
something inside me
was folding the moment away
before it had even finished happening.

A beautiful song
that somehow sounds like goodbye
from the very first note.

I have held warm hands
while already feeling the cold absence of them.
Watched sunsets
like apologies written across the sky.
Loved people
with the strange instinct
of someone packing a suitcase during the embrace.

Maybe that is the cruelest part,
not losing happiness,
but hearing the echo of loss
inside it while it still lives.

So every good thing becomes fragile.
Every smile carries an expiration date.
And joy itself feels temporary
from the moment it begins.