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Manufacturing a Snow Day

As the temperature dropped,

we filled buckets and

poured water on the road.

A better plan

had never been designed.

Ice on the asphalt,

we knew,

meant the school bus

would never be safe.

Unsafe conditions

were what we needed most.

Trip after trip,

relay after relay,

we ensured the slickness

of the street.

Our scheme was

foolproof.

No school bus could

survive the frozen

wasteland

that was our neighborhood.

No bus driver

in his right mind

would risk it.

Mr. Johnson would

have to make the call.

The drifts weren’t enough,

we were certain.

The blizzard

coming in from Wisconsin,

blown across Lake Michigan,

needed our guidance.

We couldn’t trust nature

to do what had to be

done.

The weekend

was for sledding, skiing,

skating.

A Monday in our desks

would be such a waste.

Who could blame us?

We would be hailed as

heroes.

A three-day weekend

at the end of January.

For all the kids in town,

Terrier Lane would be a

tundra.

For all of the kids in town,

we were bringing

freedom and peace.


In Monday morning math class,

we couldn’t comprehend

what went wrong.

Our infallible plot

had failed.

Our valiant effort was forgotten.

I guess we didn’t use enough

water.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR


Andre F. Peltier is a Lecturer III at Eastern Michigan University where he has taught African American Literature, Afrofuturism, Science Fiction, Poetry, and Freshman Composition since 1998. He lives in Ypsilanti, MI, with his wife, children, turtles, dog, and cat. His poetry has appeared in Big Whoopie Deal, In Parentheses, Griffel Magazine, Fahmidan Journal, The Write Launch, and Tofu Ink and is forthcoming in The Great Lakes Review, La Piccioletta Barca, Prospectus, Sledgehammer, Melbourne Culture Corner, The JFA Human Rights Journal, Spillover Mag, and an anthology from Quillkeepers Press. In his free time, he obsesses about soccer and comic books.


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