Carol Pearce-Worthington
New York City, New York, U.S.A.

Sandy Hook

By midnight and Sandy Hook not yet sanded a line of tractor trailers forms a jagged frieze up its incline east of the Mississippi professional drivers told to take off tonight no matter what the weather so they roar over the chunk ice Mississippi and start the climb but quickly jackknife nose to tail yank the emergency to stop the slide stop just shy of a ditch and settle into the rosary strand to wait, pulling up sweat shirt hood closing buttons on the red plaid searching out oil stained gloves sleet biting the windows and a farmer seeing headlights makes his way through falling snow across a field and from his battered thermos pours out steaming coffee.

igniting snow
the red glow of
cigarettes