The Letter

Several months after returning
From the South Pacific,
While I was back at school
At Michigan State University
I received a letter
From a Samoan girl
Whom I met shortly before I left.
I must have made
Quite an impression
Or else she was awfully anxious
To get off that island.
She wanted me
To bring her to the States.
My aunt must have
Taken a liking to her
And passed on my address
Sensing the girl’s intense desire
To flee her island home.
It may have briefly
Been paradise to me,
But it obviously
Wasn’t quite the same
For that girl.
What was comical
About the letter
Was the circuitous route
It took to get to me.
The girl’s English
Was so bad
That the letter was read
By as many as
Thirty or forty people
In my dormitory
Trying to figure out
Who it was for
Before it finally
Made its way to me.
My aunt was always
Trying to be helpful
That way,
But there is no way
That could have worked out,
And it certainly wouldn’t
Have been conducive
To my studies.