Plow

Crash.
Shrieking steel impact
then silence.
Snow
blowing snow
on the white plain
and a yellow flashing light
on a yellow truck
with a state seal
on the door
familiar for its good salty work
now ground to a halt.

Shoe.
Hats and a university sweatshirt
speaking youth
but mutely
from the ditch.
A mangled first car
shunted by the plow
perversely converted
a container
of fate and urgency.

Sleep.
They were asleep.
The plow man numb.
Slumber soon to be
disrupted
surreal
by sirens and multicolored
lights
a blurred kaleidoscope
people disguising confusion
with pointing
shouting and scurrying.
Samaritans
veterans
of the first five minutes
displaced
by experts
but locked forever
into the muffled sounds
and shadows
of their snowy
waking.