Quintin Collins
Generation Snowflake
this is how they like us
when we float
down from the sky
when they can catch us
in their palms let the heat
melt us to water
cold a concession to enjoy
our presence they tolerate
only if we leave
our ice if we lie
on the pavement
do not obstruct their view
do not gather into banks
on their roads do not travel
sideways they like us
predictable light malleable
if they can gather
several of us packed together
into a ball they can throw
for fun when they like us
when we only powder
their christmas when we do not blizzard
or lake effectdo not accumulate
more than an inchdo not grow
into a bomb cyclonedo not rush
upon them as an avalanche
they like when they can carve us
with skis and snowboards
when they don’t have to bend
their backs to shovel us
off their propertythis is how they like us
—Submitted on 05/11/2020
Quintin Collins is the author of The Dandelion Speaks of Survival, forthcoming from Cherry Castle Publishing in 2021. His poems have appeared in Up the Staircase Quarterly, Glass Poetry Press, Poems2go, Transition Magazine, Ghost City Review, and other journals, as well as in the anthology A Garden of Black Joy: Global Poetry from the Edges of Liberation and Living (Wise Ink Creative Publishing, 2020), edited by Keno Evol. Collins is assistant director of the Solstice Low-Residency MFA program at Pine Manor College in Newton, Mass. Twitter @qcollinswriter.
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