There's Some Rough Weather on Every Voyage

    - After "Mary Poppins"

 

First winter in Chicago,

newly married,

water bottle frozen,

 

Honda hatchback stacked with sandbags,

pretending control,

but sliding bank to bank.

 

Still singing Chim Chiminey,

lucky with the unawareness

that allows youth to thrive.

 

Drifting through red lights

on black ice, through Skokie

wearing that first suit, heading

 

to that first adult job.

 

Like Bert, yeah, the Poppins guy,

can jump into simple drawings

sing hope with goats and rabbits.

 

Rougher conditions are coming,

storms of self-doubt and frigid guilt,

seasons of loneliness and despair.

 

But that’s the journey my friend,

pain and jolly holiday,

pockets full of chalk

 

drawings waiting for you to jump,

once rough weather has departed.