Highway to Happiness

The Highway to Happiness.

After a cold, long and boring night,
I awoke to see yet a cloudy day.
Six in the morning and it still felt like the night before -sad.
I tried sleeping but kept having recurring nightmares of my pasts,
I was taunted by the mistakes I made some years ago.

"Ring, Ring" my phone rang.
I picked it up to see a text from an angel,
Informing me that there's a place I can go to and have peace of mind, joy, accomplishments, freedom from depression, hope, and even a glorious future.
She gave me the address to the place,
And named it Happiness.
She said it's because it's all I ever wanted as she observed me,
And it's true for a fact.
She said all I ever had to do was to pick up my bag and get going,
to never look back except I wanted to check and see how far I've gone.
She said to carry nothing but my tiny bag and my phone -it's all I needed.

My angel let me know that "Happiness" was very far,
And it was one of the most twisted mazes, mapped around the earth;
It'd take me a few years, maybe decades to get there in my shortest routes.
There's gonna be a lot of harsher conditions, more pain, loneliness, dilemma, sacrifices, danger, and even losses on this my journey to Happiness.
But if I'm willing enough I'd get there.

Mostly, no man gets there alone -but no one starts with a companion.

On reading this, I stood up from my bed, packed my small bag and phone,
And headed off.
I followed the map called,
"Highway to Happiness",
Leaving at home my bed, cushion, drink and food -
Virtually everything that gave me comfort,
In search for a real Eden.

As I progressed down the highway,
I found a lot of tired and unhappy souls.
Most of them regretting everything in general, nothing in particular;
Some were weary looking and even awaited death.
I felt pity for them, because,
Most, if not all wouldn't make it to the final destination -and the journey had just begun.

A little further, I found those somewhat like me -
They were young and had energy and vigor;
They seemed enthusiastic but lacked patience;
Not too soon had I notice their drastic slack in number-
Some of then saw little paradises and peace gardens and decided that they'd reached their Destination;
Some turned back to go home.
It didn't take long to observe that they all had their phones in their palms(each having different routes but one location),
and carried a small bag like me.
People just assumed what they'd encountered to the Happiness they were expecting.
Soon they were no more -
I was all alone again.

I then passed by magicians, soothsayers fortune-tellers and the rest of them,
They all provided to solve my map for the shortest route to where I was headed, which I agreed, and they all discovered that,
It was all gonna take me the same number of decades I expected.

On my way I met wild animals, untamed weather conditions, vicious challenges that sought to kill me.
I eventually turned primitive:
I fed on lions for breakfast,
I ate bears for lunch,
And serpents for dinner.
For nothing was going to survive at their mercy.

After a while,
I looked back to see how far I'd gone,
And noticed I was just outside my street,
The journey was yet to begin.
Two days merely passed and I was already a beast.
A good thing all I've been doing since I noticed where I've been for this two days is to laughed,
I simply smiled at how far I've gone,
Coz I know there'll be many more years of trekking.

Who knows what I'll be by then?'
I'm already a beast in two days;
I might end up being a ghost, a spirit
Or maybe an angel.

So that's how angels evolve!
Through years of struggle, and survival, and starvation, and wear and tear,
My mortal body will wither off to present my eternal form- someone else's angel.

And that's how I solved the maze
I've figured out where Happiness is located,
A couple of years journey will get me there...

But for now,
I'm still on the Highway to Happiness.