Ode To Winter

The first time I came home for a Christmas break
Having endured a frigid Midwest fall semester
The coldest on record, my Irish grad school luck holding
Very little Hawaiian sun had a chance to shine down on me
Dead dream of strumming a ‘ukulele beneath a shady palm tree
So the hometown tan all my Wisconsin friends had wished for me
That collective hope of theirs would not come true
A hard, cold Hawai‘i winter rain beat down their prophesy
Doomed me to keep my snowy weather white skin unshed
Slouching gloomily by a window watching the inclement weather
I could have done that staying in Madison for a lot less money
When I returned to school everyone thought it kind of funny
My overcast Garden of Eden, ironic to them, but not to me
For someone battling homesickness it was an unkind tragedy