Clearing Snow

Usually I can fend for myself in this microarena
of memory—of embarrassment, of you.

I wield a shovel with the proper weight to it.
I slice the snowy thoughts out of mind.

Usually they'd flake down on me, melt, and fall
again. But this is a new shovel. This year it all stays.

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JOHN STINTZI is a poet and novelist who was raised on a beef farm in northwestern Ontario. John’s poetry and fiction has been featured in Lemon Hound, Humber Literary Review, Matrix Magazine, Los Angeles Review of Books, PRISM international, and others. In 2018, John will be an Artist-in-Residence at The Watermill Center in Water Mill, New York. John is currently living in Kansas City with their girlfriend, and is working on selling a novel as well as a collection of poetry. Follow John on Twitter @stintzi.