Now that I've starting writing poems again (for the recently self published Blurb book "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blue Jay") http://www.blurb.com/b/8507763-thirteen-ways-of-looking-at-a-blue-jay, I started going back through poems I've written in the past. Most were done for a family writing collective called "Round Robin." Here's one from 2000 I found particularly relevant to today:
I wish for a fish
A fish of green and violet stripes
In a warm ocean pool
I can swim in
while I'm on a vacation
That lasts forever
In the sun, having fun
Staying eternally young
And in this unrealistic fantasy
The fish will talk to me
And give me words of wisdom
That bubble up through the water
And dry in iridescent drops on my skin
Where everyone else can read them
And learn something
I still wish for an eternal vacation but more realistically, what I'm wishing for today, is a better government!
What's maybe more interesting is how often one does get what one wishes for. I had totally forgotten this poem, but realize now my trip to the Galapagos last year, where I snorkeled with beautiful fish, was exactly what I had wished for 17 years earlier.