Poems for Peter

This is the title of a book my maternal grandmother, Mama-G gave to me as a child. I memorized my favorite poem in the book.

I hate to swallow the ocean

And it’s all God’s fault

Because he could’ve put in sugar

But he went and put in salt.

As a child I just thought this poem was funny. It is true ocean water would taste better if it was sweet and not salty. Can you imagine boiling the water down to get sea sugar and not sea salt? I was thinking the other day about this poem. In this current state of affairs in our world, the poem has new meaning to me. God created the waters, and more specifically the beautiful oceans, blue seas and rivers. And yet, ‘The Man Upstairs” as I call God, made ocean water taste bad. Why? In my opinion, it is to remind us that there is bad even when there is good (and vice versa). Covid-19 has shut down whole countries, forced people to stay at home and left some with financial struggles. Yet we hear stories of neighbors shopping for elderly people, people baking for front line workers, and people just helping those in need. Even in my neighborhood, I saw a “free library” turned into a “free pantry.” The poem now represents to me that salty and sweet, good and bad go together like Laverne and Shirley. So on this Earth Day, remember to smell the spring blooms to remind yourself that no matter what is going on in the world around us, spring still comes and with it the fragrance of cherry blossoms, tulips and hyacinth to name a few.