We heard sleet on the windshield
and winced as though stung.

The car washed softly to the right.

We gaped, the gift of panic,
which has a cold heart
under its exuberant skin,
and I grabbed your empty sleeve.

Some gathered
as they do, hands
in their pockets, chilled.

Samn Stockwell has published extensively. Her new book, Musical Figures, is published by Thirty West Publishing House. Previous books won the National Poetry Series and the Editor’s Prize at Elixir. Recent poems are in Ploughshares, Pleiades, Pleiades, and others.