I’m the one who cleans up
after all that easy sweep
of downy flakes transforms
the winter scene to bushy heaps.
I’m the one up at 4 a.m., driving
my beeping snowplow through
drifted roads, leading the blind
drivers in a slow parade
of scraped slush, yellow glow.
I’m the one spreading
sand and cinders on sheets
of ice before someone breaks
their neck on glassy patches.
Heater blasting in my cab
to keep out the 30 below,
I work the storm’s long track,
passing shuttered houses
on side streets where I know
people lie awake and listen
for the sound of an opening road.
Robin Chapman
Robin Chapman’s work has been awarded the Cider Press Book Editors’ Award, the Posner Poetry Award, the Wisconsin Library Association’s Outstanding Book of Poetry Award, and the Helen Howe Poetry Award from Appalachia. She lives in Madison, WI. Panic Season (Tebot Bach, 2022, available from spdbooks.org) is her newest book.
Portage Magazine 