CABIN FEVER

Here's a poem about the illness that affects most nature loving Wisconsinites this time of year...

 

Since it's much too cold to journal outdoors for my blog this week, I decided to dig up an old poem for you that I wrote last winter.  It fits my mood.  Everyone who lives in the north woods knows what cabin fever is.  It strikes you when winter gets so cold that you can't enjoy the outdoors the way you'd like to.  It comes along when you are fed up to the ying yang with those short days, long nights, and cold temps and you want to scream...  I CAN'T TAKE THIS ANYMORE!

It's still early winter, so most cases of cabin fever are mild ones yet.  It was only 23° below zero this morning.  Wait til late February or early March and cases will become more prevalent.  In the most severe case, there is no cure, until one sees pussy willows.

CABIN FEVER

   

Wisconsin winters, firewood splinters
Christmas lights, starry nights

Smokey stoves, birchwood groves
Wood pile shrinking, outhouse stinking

Drippy nose, frozen toes
Chapped lips, frozen fingertips

Mittens and caps, afternoon naps
Frizzy hair, thermal underwear

Fogged up glasses, cold as molasses
Animal tracks, snowmen when it packs

Fishing on ice, shacks are nice
Skis on snow, go Pack go

Shorter days, lazier ways
Winter's long, like a boring song

Nobody's friend, when will it end
Cabin fever, love it or leave her

Keep your thoughts warm and cheery, put your headlamp on, 

and think about pussy willows.