The Danes have a word for that moment
when your belly glows with embers of joy.
You are warm and comforted
you are cozy
you are hygge.
The highest aspirations of the culture
are a yearning to embody
a steady state
of hug.
My one-year-old pushes his body into my arms
like a mole
burrowing into the earth,
the fire jumps and swirls inside the wood stove,
and I am sure the Danes are right.
This is the answer
to all the sorrow
that ever was.