Jennifer Elise Wang

It’s why we’re glad X Games is in Colorado and not the Ice Coast.
Ice makes you slip.
Ice makes you catch an edge.
Ice hurts.
I.C.E. kills.
I’m struggling with the ice-cold response to the news in Aspen.
I get the athletes needing to have ice in their veins
To win the ice X Games created in lieu of traditional medals,
But why is everyone else still sipping their ice-cold beers
And dancing to a remix of “Ice Ice Baby”
Like the government hasn’t created a secret pol-ICE?
I thought snowboarders hated police like they hated ice patches.
And icing on this shitty cake was the national anthem
And red, white, and blue lights painting the superpipe’s icy sides.
I sat my ass on the iced-over ground and think
Of the icy reception I got here for having skin
the color of sand and not snow.
Have I been iced out of this sport I love so much?
But later I see a snowboarder compete
with “Abolish I.C.E.” on her hoodie
And the ice crusting over my heart thaws a little.
Falling on ice is dangerous.
Confronting I.C.E. is dangerous.
But snowboarders don’t let fear take away our joy.

Jennifer Elise Wang (they/she) is a nonbinary femme in STEM and punk rock pretty boi poet from Dallas, Texas. When they’re not in the lab or writing, they enjoy action sports, cosplay, dancing, and volunteering at the animal shelter. They have been published in FERAL, just femme & dandy, Penumbric, and Bethlehem Writers Roundtable and featured in Inner Moonlight, Phynnecabulary, and Cobalt Poets. jenniferelisewang.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.