is anything worth it?

life is kind of like those carnival games
where you knock down a stack of milk cans
with a yellowed softball.
i could hand over a week's salary
to a snarl-toothed carnie
and walk away empty handed
only to spot the happy fools
prancing among the ranks of the unwashed
with giant, pink and white stuffed teddy bears
dangling from their shoulders
from my perch atop the ferris wheel--
the highs and the lows
perpetually circling
forever on a treadmill
to nowhere.