I'm Going Back To Minnesota Where Sadness Makes Sense by Danez Smith

I first read this poem when I had just moved from the midwest to California and love how beautifully it captures depression and loneliness after moving to a state that's always "sunny" and "happy".

O California, don’t you know the sun is only a god
If you learn to starve for her? i’m over the ocean

I stood at its lip, dressed in down, praying for snow.
I know, i’m strange, too much light makes me nervous

At least in this land where the trees always bear green.
I know something that doesn’t die can’t be beautiful.

Have you ever stood on a frozen lake, California?
The sun above you, the snow & stalled sea—a field of mirror

All demanding to be the sun, everything around you
Is light & it’s gorgeous & if you stay too long it will kill you.

It’s so sad, you know? you’re the only warm thing for miles
The only thing that can’t shine.