Chicago ice nights
on the Loop
peering into windows
of great steaks & chops
smelling glorious
bread & butter
melting in the snowdrifts
tasting frostbitten salads
of the South Side
& warming in the glow
of a Greyhound’s exhaust
drinking steamy coffee
over gloomy
manhole covers
& sampling
apple pie in
dark alleys
of Cicero.
frozen stars crackling
in December wind
snowflakes covering
the very moon-
i head west