The price of Happyness

Tell me the recipe for happiness
give me the ingredients, and the exact price
Can I cook it in my stockpot
along with dal and rice ..

I often wonder at what great cost
what to value when the value is lost
how in perfect words explain
the poignant demise of an inner joy in someone's casual disdain

will being quiet help
will it bring me real silence
can I do with a fake dish
can I manage the culinary pretence

why can't I just tell you
a little note by note
we create the recipe with understanding
not with ignorance and least by rote

have you tried some simple dishes
like the one I made the other day
when we just took sugar dreams
and put all the store-bought spices away

I hear them saying all the time
perfection in presentation and a hint of lime
but from whatever I have tasted it was always over-cooked
maybe it was an ego being stuffed and the real gravy overlooked

you know when I have loved it best
when I put all judgements to rest
when not for you or for him or her
but only for my soul I set out to decipher
when I did not please nor command
when I chose to neither hold  nor reprimand
but rather when I was soaking in the subtle flavor
enjoying every little fruit of labor
when seeing all those colors together in the dish
I had wanted to own a rainbow, that had been my silly wish
they say you need the perfect wine
to host and with loved ones dine
I tell you I have been drunk on joy
which those in control did not for me buy
I fermented my own sense of goodness and beauty
which we all have in some measure
I let it ruminate under a full moon
and shared with someone that treasure
he even made it better and not with things bought with money,
he just always stood by me [in our own vineyard] and offered me his priceless company
and when together once we sat down to a simple meal
lots of thoughts we ate and chewed
I can tell you, in all humility of not knowing a great deal
It was in that kitchen, talking on the dinner table, the most pristine happiness that I ever brewed.

Happiness is an inspiration, it is a leap
how to jump I don't myself always know
but when I can, it comes real cheap.

:)

p.s : This is a hurried attempt at conveying something I sometimes think about through something I almost always am thinking about ..food.