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No Expiration Date

This poem contemplates whether human emotions have an expiration date, reflecting deeply on the endurance and meaning of the feelings that dwell within us. Happiness, sorrow, anger, and suffering do not simply disappear; they remain as traces of having truly lived. Rather than denying or discarding emotions, the poem speaks of the weight and dignity of carrying them through life. Embracing human immaturity and inner conflict alike, the poem quietly asks whether emotions themselves are what shape our existence.

 

“No Expiration Date”

 

Does happiness have an expiration date?

 

Someday, we will part from those we love.

Is it still too early to imagine that sorrow?

So for now, please live in happiness with all your heart.

After loss comes, the memory of happiness remains vivid.

No matter how deep the sorrow may become,

that happiness has no expiration date.

 

Does sorrow have an expiration date?

 

Every sorrow must somehow be carried.

There may come tears that feel as though the heart itself is being torn apart.

So when that moment comes, cry until every tear runs dry.

Such grief is proportional to the joy that once was happiness.

That is why sorrow, too, has no expiration date.

 

Does anger have an expiration date?

 

Resentment toward a world ruled by wealth and power does not disappear.

The heart aches so that it will not be stained by malice.

That is why we resist, so as not to betray what conscience demands.

We must carry the suffering of those who have been oppressed.

That is why anger, too, has no expiration date.

 

Does suffering have an expiration date?

 

Life is a road filled with upheaval and uncertainty.

The heart nearly breaks because it continues to challenge itself.

That is why life is a journey born from longing and pursuit.

The will to overcome is itself a form of strength.

As long as we do not surrender, suffering has no expiration date.

 

Do rising emotions have an expiration date?

 

Why do people come to feel hatred?

Why can people not become more tolerant?

Why do people envy and resent others?

Why do people taste bitterness and regret?

 

Emotions are born and fade away again and again.

Perhaps we feel such things because we are not yet fulfilled.

Somewhere along the way, people must share joy with one another

and free themselves from within.

The expiration date of such emotions

may be decided by the immaturity of our own humanity.

 

Written on April 24, 2026.

I suddenly found myself wondering whether emotions have an expiration date.

 

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