All the kids have a snow day
but none of them are out playing in it.
They are snug with their dogs
under blanket forts or else
in the kitchen drinking marshmallow cocoa.
Because the wind chill is 45 degrees below zero

and even the lawyers don’t want to talk about it –
they have cancelled the courts
for the whole county.

The DMV is closed. The mall
is closed. The banks are keeping
the money locked up in drawers.

Behind the apartments
the trees still stand tall
but they tremble like old men
caught bare in the locker room.
They know they can’t
go anywhere at all,
even at a wind chill of 45 below zero.

My sparrows still come for the sunflower seeds
but they are little pufferball featherbutts.
They just dart in and dart out again,
because did you hear?
The wind chill is 45 degrees below zero.
Records may be set.
The brake fluid in cars can turn to gel.
I’m not going anywhere at all when
the chill temperature is 45 degrees below zero.