Nancy Scott

WINTER

It’s always winter somewhere although snow has melted,
The power grids are juiced and only potholes remain; yet,
the 1% worry about conditions on the slopes at St. Moritz.

It’s always winter somewhere when the boilers don’t heat,
the shelves are bare, but for a tin of sardines, and the poor
wait in lines for a dwindling share of the American dream.

It’s always winter somewhere when the coffins are sealed,
the candles lit and prayers intoned, but in the wings the icy
finger of death prepares to pull the trigger again and again.


Aja Beech reads "Winter":



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Nancy confesses: "This poem, written in 2018, was never published. It was inspired by the mass shooting at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school in Parkland, Florida. Surely this tragedy would shock America to its core. Things would change. Yet, the gulf between us has only widened and the dying never stops."

NANCY SCOTT has been managing editor of U.S.1 Worksheets for more than a decade. She is also the author of nine books of poetry and a novella, Marriage by Fire (Big Top Publishing Company, 2018). Before she retired and turned to writing, she had a long career as a social worker for the State of New Jersey which informed and inspired many of her poems. Originally from the Chicago area, she has resided in New Jersey for many years. www.nancyscott.net