Outside my window, snow swirls
in torrents of thick, bulbous flakes,
as if the world were a glass globe
shaking in the fist of a petulant god.

Somewhere, federal agents
kick in a door, children screaming,
parents weeping, corralled into
unmarked vans to be disappeared.

Somewhere, a slick-suited man
whose primary qualifications consist
of wealth and willingness to kiss the ring
seethes and oozes through the Senate.

Somewhere, a madness-riddled
pile of necrotic neuroses
wrapped in human skin plots
vengeance against a foolish nation.

Somewhere, a transgender teen
holds a razor blade above their wrist,
unsure if they see their path through
the trees closing in around them.

Somewhere, jackboots march,
darkness deepens, shadows lengthen,
and I hear the sound of footsteps,
close and growing closer, closer.

Outside my window, snow clears,
a sky as pale as death peers down
between the clouds, and I shiver,
suddenly colder than I’d realized.