Happiness for Real

is a daughter getting the semi-retired all worked up over a singing contest on TV, The Voice of Finland, and then, as the last number is a biker woman doing a tolerable version of "Whole Lotta Rosie," Dad may reveal deep beneath his hoodie and Seattle flannel a Bon Scott tee,

 "Guess who sang that one first?"

And later on at the store when he's asking the pretty blonde cashier after some Smurf candy nobody's ever heard of - at home I'm set straight once again, they're chocolate, not candy - they disapprove of the whole Angry Birds craze instead, how it's gotten out of hand, the children getting all violent and stuff, yes, I work at a daycare center - there, then, Elton John is singing "Daniel" in the loudspeakers, between the corridors, wherever. And I get a hold of one good thing to remember my latest last ex by.

I laughed at that song when she first played it to me. Praised Jesus for it now. The lightness of being no longer anywhere near unbearable. Quite the opposite.

The Artist...

... and the Romantic of the Family...

... in a battle within, yet they sleep side by side.

Why worry? It's the kids who pay for it in the end.
(And pay and pay and pay...)

 Listen to "Daniel."


And if Reetta, the girl from the store, reads this,
I want to thank you again for the Birds - 
you wrote at least a third
of this entry!
(A broken puzzle is of no use for anyone.)