...to sleep peacefully like a bear buried in snow… Jan. 18, 2022

a crazy thought driving home from work

through a whiteout in upstate New York

the road a thickly floured pasture

darkness hostage to fog and snow

I stare between the wiper’s sweeps

haloed taillights ahead of me blink

danger over and over

a bar I pass is full of bears

big bundled men holding mugs

in a warm mellow-orange light

that twinkles cozy with pleasure

alcohol the blizzard of their hibernation

now doubly jealous of their

serenity and the bear’s in the den

I keep car the crawling till I get home

wondering then why I live in a place

where the house heater kick starts

like an angry grizzly pissed at the

interruption of an endless sweet dream