Birmingham
Heart of Dixie
Winter March
Superstorm 1993
Were we between
homes? Piecemeal
family packed into
North American
green four-door
Pontiac parked in
the swirl of cold
bundled together
Dad fed the engine
set to burn gas paid
with lesser Washingtons
who was there with
the five of us? Colonel
Sanders visited in
his pressure-fryer
bucket to bless us
with a secret incense
of eleven herbs and
spices wrapping up
a good paper meal
for a Korean household
christened again in
the name of chicken
new snow people
biting into crisp
country Southern
hospitality to melt
water crystals
We wasted nothing
even without power
waited for the gravy
train not knowing
what it meant to live
like it’s all gravy we
were warm enough
eating our laughs
one at a time
piling up joy
an avalanche
to remember
Copyright © 2019 by Stine An. This poem was first printed in Electric Literature’s The Commuter, Issue 88.(October / 2019). Used with the permission of the author.