No Parking or Impeding Traffic Flow During Emergency
Richmond, VA
In one snow emergency, my cousins
and I tied trash bags around our legs
when we had no boots. In another,
I stayed in bed with a man for three
days, all the bread eaten, all the milk
drunk. Thirteen years later I carried
my girl at four months, wrapped
like a lamb through the stilled city,
our breath clouding the sparkling,
unfolding air. We sang a song for her
father. What constitutes a snow
emergency? Whiteness so sudden
and bright upon the forehead?
Excessive festooning of trees
and power lines? Instant darkening
of all evergreens? A woman once
discovered under a microscope
two identical snowflakes. There are
no snow emergencies, only human.
Her fingers cold, she shut her eyes
against their spidered gleaming.
