Bartholomew Barker

Left by a winter storm
thick enough to block the light
and resist the plastic scraper

I smash the blunt handle
down on the windshield
hard enough to leave a crater

like a bullet hole

The ice which seemed so strong
was melting from above and below
fragile as tyrant’s lace

After the first flaw
it comes off in sheets
like opening a zipper

A shard cuts the meat of my palm
not so much pain as surprise
and with dismay I realize

It will be our blood
that melts the ice

Bartholomew Barker is an organizer of Living Poetry, where he has hosted a monthly feedback workshop for more than a decade. His first poetry collection, Wednesday Night Regular, written in and about strip clubs, was published in 2013. His second, Milkshakes and Chilidogs, a chapbook of food inspired poetry was served in 2017. He was nominated for the Pushcart Prize in 2021 & 2025 as well as the Best of the Net Anthology in 2024. His work has appeared in The Lake, Autumn Sky Poetry Daily, Panoply, Tipton Poetry Journal, the Gyroscope Review and the Naugatuck River Review among others. bartbarkerpoet.com

This poem appears in Uprooted: Poems of Resistance, Witness, and Survival (The Chaos Section Poetry Project, Fall 2026). We’re sharing each poem from the collection individually over the coming weeks. You can read the full book or download the free PDF here.