Top Of My Lungs 
    Even though I am unhappy
    I come home singing at the top of my lungs
    Shovel off the new snow and shove it on the old
    Open the useless screened porch door
    and take off my big boots
    There are fried eggs
    yellow as pearls
    The old bed I dive into like a warm whale
    The phone ringing
    that duck on the wall
    And even though I am unhappy
    I sleep with the peace of flying angels
    And even though I am sad
    my wallet's empty
    I buy the best soap
    And even though my heart is hurting
    out of sure will
    I come home singing with the last night wind
    and the first morning star
    and the canary
    and the summer that was killed below our house

    I walk down to the Rainbow Café
    call my Catholic friend Mary to come
    have a drink and eat a turkey sandwich
    The down coat I wear all winter still has the goose feathers
    from a hundred flying birds
    They let us smoke at our small table
    Mary will always meet me here
    They fill your glasses with the most sparking water
    for free
    and the cold moon rises over the marquee
    of the Suburban World theater

    So even though I am unhappy
    I throw back my old goat throat
    and sing slowly
    "Oh my darlin' Clementine"
    by the beautiful lake in Minnesota
    as the pressure of the black night cold
    moves in on us from all ten directions
    I sing to the moon above the lake
    "You are lost and gone forever"
    calling the pure beast of loneliness down from the sky
    with the old American song haunting city lights
    "Dreadful sorry Clementine"
    and though the very earth has swelled up
    like an elephant with pain
    I stand on its back singing
    in this sad universe
    where one lover leaves another for all time
    and nothing to say with your feet on the ground

                          Natalie Goldberg