SPRING INTO SPRING

Aren't we lucky to live in a place where spring comes early ?
When the rest of the nation still looks at winter very surly.
For years I dreamed of warm sunshine while shoveling snow-
until the U.S. Army in California my bugle did loudly blow.

In downtown Burbank spring came early, warmed the heart-
where, as a lowly Private,I scrubbed barracks and got a start.
We learned to march and our superiors we had to salute,
thinking of the Hollywood Canteen puts me in a good mood.

But, at the end,there was no work when they finally let me go,
back to winter in New York where the cold winds did blow.
My dear departed wife and her parents found us there a home-
yet, in our fondest dreams in warm California we wanted to roam.

When her parents, on a visit, with a shoe store there fell in love,
they asked us to join them to enjoy the good sun from above.
Much time has since passed with my heart in this great State-
where spring comes in good time, only sometimes a little late.


OTTO ROSS
February 2011