- standing on the pier
- I watch the light freeze
- on the tips of waves
- as the cold strokes the
California warmth;
- a strange mixture
- I'd never felt before
here.
-
- My parents, visiting
- from Pennsylvania,
- have brought gifts--a
Winnie the Pooh book and a stuffed bear--
- for the child I once was;
- and for the woman I now am
- they have only one
question:
- When are you coming
home?
-
- Christmas 1996:
-
- I grew tired of the eastern
cold
- keeping me inside,
- so I packed up my life
- and headed out west;
- in the sun I meditated on
the beach,
- got tattoos, a graduate
degree
- and a teaching job, here.
-
- Christmas 1999 (reprise):
-
- I feel the cool breeze
- encircling the warmth
- as the sun rises over the
ocean;
- when my parents call to me
- from a bench some distance
away,
- I wave to them but stay
here.