Happiness By

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.

From “Staying Alive: Real Poems for Unreal Times,” edited by

Neil Astley (Miramax Books:

496 pp., $16.95 paper)