ICE Winter/Boiling Blood

We are now several weeks into Operation Distract Everyone (AKA by its official title, Operation Epic Fury). The violence erupting across the globe—and the economic hardships following in its wake—will not erase the memory of the violence this administration brought about in Minneapolis. I wrote this villanelle, my first, just after Alex Pretti was murdered. There is something strangely powerful about using formal poetry to decry brutal ruptures in democracy.

Generally, I want my poetry to celebrate the beauty of life. And sometimes its heart-tuggingness. And even—sometimes—loss. But in this moment, it has been difficult to write what I’d prefer to write because I feel called to write what I must.

Ice Winter

It was a winter overwhelmed by ice.

For weeks, we watched it harden on the snow,

and wishing it would stop did not suffice.

Just going out required our thinking twice.

The windchill one day reached 13 below!

It was a winter overwhelmed by ice.

Although the snowplows came, banks the size

of mountains kept us from the roads below.

Hoping for it to stop would not suffice.

I fell, not noticing the frozen slice

of pavement at the corner. What a blow!

It was a winter overwhelmed by ice.

But I didn't have to grapple with police

or federal agents’ fear-inducing shows

as calls for them to stop did not suffice.

Let this poem join other calls for justice

for those slain and terrorized in the snow.

It’s still a winter overwhelmed by ICE,

and wishing it would stop will not suffice!