Poem of the Day 02.02.23

walking home from work
on the evening after a march snowstorm

my wife texts me
that they are fighting on the subway platform
over delayed trains
from snow and frozen tracks

and in the hardware store
the man behind the counter
with his plastic pool sales
and garden hose dreams

is pushing spring like it’s a new drug

this evening the setting sun
paints portraits on the sides of buildings
that i take pictures of
for posterity and the vain glory of social media

but the sidewalk tells me
that winter keeps lingering on

this unholy mess of snow and ice
that the neighbors leave sitting there
like offerings to the gods

that i have to dodge like traffic
unless i want to break an ankle

it knows the march of time
better than any groundhog

it knows what lingers more than most

better than any plastic patriot
loitering through their lifetime

taking up and down their silly american flag
and planting fake flowers in their lawn

as if they could fool
any of us at all

with their optimism with their confounded hope