Inhospitable Places Poem by Sonny Rainshine

Just as you to inhospitable places
are drawn, so am I.
Just as some je ne sais quoi
has taken you from me

and set you down among
sage and saguaros
and starlit desert skies
like dotted swiss, like

symphonies both sweet
and bone-chilling,
so have I been seduced
by the very thing that repels me:

long winters, blankets, quilts
of snow, that provide no warmth.
Why does someone so hungry
for green, for green that lasts,

for warmth that pushes into
winter with grace, not force,
find solace and sense
in the white chill of the North?

Inhospitable places,
where scalding sand and white snow
spread their welcome mats
to accept us even as reluctant guests.