Outside my running car

freezing, from home far

left early to beat a storm

only now my key is safe and warm

 

In 96 it tortured me

frantically trying to get in, you see

a blizzard brewing high and low

a manager helping but no-go

 

Angry, finally getting in

driving home, no snow within

and now I fear I’ll be trapped again

inside a frozen drift – no-win

 

Scared now, road barely seen

ice caking on my windshield thin

on the ground, no trace of green

I ponder, amidst the motor’s din

 

When finally I make it home

another trap assaults my bones

within abode I’m caught, dear me

without those staples I need to BE

and days it stayed that way … three!

 

The blizzard of 96 it was

but not so free of slush because

now snowplows push street-snow in

both car and me are stuck again.

 

-Sandra Johnson, 6/22/19