California Cold
California Cold
I got a taste of California Cold—
I, long an exile from the land of snow.
Some exiles may have cried out: No, no, no!
I rejoiced as the ice reached to enfold
My aging blood. Why, if the truth is told,
I’ve missed the temperatures I used to know!
Just as the darkness sets my heart aglow,
So the cold warmed what in my heart is old.
Down from my fountain, icicles hung clear
And glorious. This crazy Disneyland
Was real again! Ah, entropy was here
Where very few can hope to understand
The emptiness that undoes all our fear!
My joy was keen because it came unplanned.
–Tom Riley
Flammeus Gladius 