“Happiness Epidemic”

by David Hernandez


Without any warning, the disease

sweeps across the country

like a traveling circus.


People who were once blue,

who slouched from carrying

a bag of misery over one shoulder


are now clinically cheerful.

Symptoms include kind gestures,

a bouncy stride, a smile


bigger than a slice of cantaloupe.

You pray that you will be infected,

hope a happy germ invades your body


and multiplies, spreading merriment

to all your major organs

like door-to-door Christmas carolers


until the virus finally reaches your heart:

that red house at the end of the block

where your deepest wishes reside,


where a dog howls behind a gate

every time that sorrow

pulls his hearse up the driveway.


Source: Hernandez, David. “Happiness Epidemic.” Casa Poema. Casa Poem, n.d. Web. 6 June 2011.




Which poetic technique is illustrated throughout the entire poem “Happiness Epidemic“?


metonymy

onomatopoeia

conceit

allusion