Sleepers

Downtown, out front of Great Wall takeout
an unbathed man in an Anthrax shirt leans
against a rucksack with probably his whole life
 
No, probability tells us the safe bet is tomorrow
the weather will be much like today—
 
Ice melting in the Yamal Peninsula
far from West Virginia, Russians flee
a resurrected reindeer chemical weapon
 
—not constancy, though in good times we hope
glacial: the old ways of nature and our wonders

Previously appeared in The New Verse News (August 2016)