Woo hoo!

UPDATE ON GOING HOME EARLY: Not looking so good. I can get a one way flight from the UK to the US for just about $800 if anyone wants to send it to me :) Otherwise, it looks like Amsterdam is in the cards.....

Anyway, back to the other stuff:

I am happy to report that at 12:54am Oxford time, Wednesday, August 9, I printed my last assignments for my Oxford classes. My criticism paper is finished, printed and ready to be handed in first thing in the morning. And I just composed and printed my last poem to share in my Writing Lives class. YAY!!!!! (okay, so i have a short paragraph to write on Wuthering Heights for class on Thursday, but that should be a breeze......I'm not thinking about that at the moment...)

Anyway, I thought you may all like to see the poem I will be sharing tomorrow. We were supposed to write a eulogy. Here is what I came up with:

Eulogy to my passport
by M. Newman

Smooth blue cover

Embossed in gold.

Your pages hold stories

Too heavy for your thin pages.

We have seen

So much of the earth

Together, you and me.

You gave me the world.

From savannah

To warm tropical isle

On top of double-decker buses

And below the bows of ships.

Hymns of Africa,

Steel drums of Bermuda,

Sing-alongs in English pubs.

These are the tunes we learned together.

Each time we touched

I said painful goodbyes,

Then happy hellos,

Only to say goodbye yet again.

Tears stained my cheeks

And streaked each stamp.

My heart broke too much

With the freedom you gave.

Now rest in your binding

Atop of my shelf.

As I say goodbye to you

And cross the border into home.