This Morning

by Jess Williard

Muffled grind of snow plows, squirrels chirping
of discovered warmth in the walls of the house.

White-packed lawns have already inflated
the day. How open it is patterned to be filled in

with cold light. How without repose. What things
I could scare enough to crawl inside me.

Jess Williard is the author of Unmanly Grief (University of Arkansas Press, 2019) selected by Billy Collins for the Miller Williams Poetry Series. His poems have recently appeared in Poetry Northwest, Third Coast, North American Review, Colorado Review, Southern Humanities Review, Poet Lore, Passages North, and other journals. He is from Wisconsin.