The Last Frozen Tundra

Brian Chander Wiora

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On December 20, 2010, the Minnesota Vikings played their first outdoor home game since 1981 at TCF Bank Stadium, their last outdoor home game ever.

The Vikings play tonight
behind a discontinuous curtain of snow, 
a lethargic, everlasting precipitation 
settles into each seat, which we wipe off 
with our store-bought gloves, tags still attached. 
The Vikings' home dome collapsed last week, 
the ice like convex lozenges against the roof, 
hard, bitter candy fell through the metal slats, 
and the team was forced outdoors. 
Earlier, in the evening, my father and I napped 
in a parked car outside the stadium.
The windows halfway between crib and cage, 
nestling us from the arctic, clarifying wind.
I adorn a Randy Moss jersey, in his final season 
in the famed purple and gold.
Favre, the veteran savant of bad passes
that almost miraculously turn into touchdowns, 
will start, despite a shoulder injury.
The rival Chicago Bears are the opponent,
and, expecting to dominate, send their players out
in nearly sleeveless attire, shoulder pads
the only protection from the winter's brutal shadows.
When we enter the stands, the grills containing various meats
are more luminous than fragrant, the heat I feel 
could wrap around the frostbit tips of my toes. 
In the first quarter, Percy Harvin scores, 
and the crowd jumps in applause, shaking 
the snowdust from their snowpants, shaking out 
the wet from under their long johns.
But this joy, like all other forms, does not last. 
The Bears mount an insurmountable lead: 
the vertical furrow of Jay Cutler's quick dimes, 
Devin Hester's illustrious elusiveness
breaking unbreakable records with a single twitch. 
And in Favre's last stand, he scatters around the pocket 
only to be sacked, his helmet failing to embrace 
the years he has witnessed. He leaves the game
                     for the last time, replaced.

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Brian Chander Wiora is a poet from Dallas, Texas. He was a Creative Writing Teaching Fellow at Columbia University, where he graduated with an MFA in Poetry in 2020. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in The American Literary Review, The Florida Review, Gulf Stream Magazine, and other places. Besides poetry, he enjoys listening to classic rock music, performing standup comedy, and traveling.

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