River ice jamstuck bridgebent, bang crackpop.
He boards his jeep
then engines it alive with a twist
the big clattering tit
& rather than
wrangle away
straightaway
as we all thought he might
he sat there
contemplating his poopec, bridgebent
with his window down &
pouring in, flecking his button-down shirt
summer rains that somehow
managed to
pop
up
BANG!
every day in this part of the world
at about this same
time
every
day, every year.
I don’t care
how hot you maybe were once
how hot you were
only moments before,
you get pelted with
one of those BIG
bulbous, spring-filled
river ice
monsters
CRACK!
felled from the heavens on days like those
much as gravity-bound bodies
tend
to do
this time of day in this
part of the world
flesh on flesh
skin on skin
unseen forces
unseen drives
it was like CRACK! Pop!
rammin’ jammin’
icicles
the size
of Maglites
the kind that holds six batteries in the tube
each one
a size D
jamstuck
straightaway
right up your keister
…(all that’s left)
(for this is what’s right)…
just try & wrangle away now
crackpop
crackpop
crack
pop
icy rivers, ten thousand snows
fell in his window as
he sat there
contemplating
some notion
at least then
you might
comprehend (SAVVY?) understand
how a few drops river ice rained down
on such damn hot days
could possibly
hold
such
bold glacial bridgebent grips.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This poem was selected from entries submitted to our Creative Challenge Series #28: First Sentences, which required that the first sentence in the text must be used as given.
