Thursday, February 04, 2010

Friday poetry challenge: singing the blues

Last night when my husband and I ran into some of my colleagues at a local Mexican restaurant, one of them predicted that I'll be snowed in all weekend. "No problem," I said. "I've got the keys to the Faculty Helicopter."

Except this morning I don't have any keys at all. House keys, car keys, office keys, mysterious keys that don't seem to belong to anything--they all spent the night back at the restaurant, no doubt whooping it up over a pitcher of margaritas. They'll be bleary-eyed by the time I get over there to retrieve them.

So here we are finishing the fourth week of the semester, and while the honeymoon is over, winter is not. We seem to be stuck in the bleak midwinter, which is the title of a hymn sitting in the Advent section of my hymnal not far from "Joy to the World" and "Angels We Have Heard on High," but no one ever wants to sing "In the Bleak Midwinter" at Christmas despite the lovely Christina Rossetti lyrics because (a) the tune is lugubrious and (b) Christmas doesn't exactly fall in the MID-winter, does it? But no one wants to sing "In the Bleak Midwinter" now that we're in the genuinely bleak midwinter because it's a Christmas song.

No, the bleak midwinter is the time to sing the blues:

Got those fourth-week-of-the-semester, just-gave-my-first-exams-back blues
Yes I've got those those fourth-week-of-the-semester, just-gave-my-first-exams-back blues
Now it's time to close the office door and kick off these dress-for-success shoes.

But I'm locked out of my office and I can't locate the key to my car
I said I'm locked out of my office and I can't locate the key to my car
And if I don't find those keys real soon I won't be getting very far.

Oh the sky is getting darker and the snow and sleet and ice arrive tonight
They say the sky is getting darker and the snow and sleet and ice arrive tonight
But you go tell the bleak midwinter I ain't giving up without a fight.

Now where's that helicopter?

Now it's your turn to sing some blues.

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