Poem For Wisconsin Poem by Matthew Zapruder

In Milwaukee it is snowing
on the golden statue
of the 1970s television star
whose television house
was in Milwaukee

and also on the Comet Cafe
and on the white museum
the famous Spanish architect
built with a glass

elevator through it
and a room with a button
that when you press it
makes two wings

on the sides of the building
more quickly than you might
imagine mechanically
rise like a clumsy

thoughtful bird
thinking now
I am at last ready
over the lake

that has many moods
to fly but it will not
and people ask
who are we who see

so much evil and try
to stop it and fail
and know we are no longer
for no reason worrying

the terrible governors
are evil or maybe
just mistaken and nothing
can stop them not even

the workers who keep
working even when
it snows on their heads
and on the bridge

that keeps our cars
above the water
for an hour
in northern California
today it snowed

and something
happened people
turned their beautiful
sparkling angry faces up