A Poem For A Birthday (!)

Happy birthday, Dad! This poem doesn't have much to do with birthdays, so I apologize for the misalignment there, but it does remind me of my "grass is greener" thoughts earlier this week. I don't particularly love the poem (so yeah, here ya go, enjoy it!) but I certainly recall moments in these dreary months of desperately yearning for the scene the narrator describes.

Paradise
Louis Jenkins

January finally drags into February and one fumbles with
numb fingers at the ordinary knots and hooks of life. People
are irritable, difficult. Some days you want to stay in bed
with the covers over your head and dream of paradise. A
place where the warm sea washes the white sand. There
are a few palm trees on the higher ground, many brightly
colored fish in the lagoon, waves breaking on the reef
farther out. No one in sight. Occasionally an incredibly
large, split-second shark darkens the clear water. Sea birds
ride the wind current, albatross, kittiwake, ... and pass
on. Day after day, sea wind and perfect sky ... You make a
big heap of driftwood on the beach.