Finnish believe
Ice does not forgive
Americans add nor
Does it forget
How to whet a threat
It took this cold age
Only one election
Cycle to creep.
Many argue its ice
Has deep, deep roots
Burn this coldness learns
Is the standard price
Of a cooling culture
Freezing scrolls
Of rules and rights
Acting achingly slow
It forsakes and strikes
Faster than any sleight
Overtaking and then taking
Away enough to suffice
Since passing
Its thin-ice cut, it’s now
Marital thick and mean
Sculpted to a form
Not meant to take seen.
The silence of this ice,
A fury in masked uniform,
Signifying everything
That is, will cease, replaced
By the brutes in brown shirts.
Timothy L. Rodriguez has published in English and Spanish. Warren Publishing of Charlotte, NC recently introduced his latest novel—Never is Now. His fiction and poems have appeared in over two dozen national and international publications including Main Street Rag, Another Chicago Magazine, Stoneboat Literary Journal (2017 Pushcart nomination), The Raven’s Perch.
