Jessica Ramer
The Iceman’s Route
Lorenzo drops a block into a bin
Beneath an icebox using two-foot tongs—
Head bent to hear the latest bulletin.
Mechanics decorate their bays with pin-
Ups showing movie idols in sarongs;
Lorenzo drops a block into a bin.
Denise, a war bride, dabs wrists with “My Sin,”
Protects her pedicure with rubber thongs,
Head bent to hear the latest bulletin.
Bandanaed women flee the factory din
Engulfing them. Two blocks past shuffling throngs,
Lorenzo drops a block into a bin.
He cannot sleep without two shots of gin,
Eats breakfast to the Andrews Sisters’ songs—
Head bent to hear the latest bulletin.
Announcers tell him tanks surround Berlin;
His son storms Mainz—where Ike says he belongs.
Lorenzo drops a block into a bin—
And strains to hear the latest bulletin.
Jessica Ramer is a third-year PhD student in poetry at the University of Southern Mississippi.
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