Brueghel on Portand Avenue      for Renee Good

A poet lies on the snow,

And through her windshield

A popped red sun--

Brueghel's modern minions

Are slaughtering innocents:

ICE officers wear Kevlar,

Not medieval steel,

Agents carry rifles--lance like--

Glommings of persons

Activate winter void,

Black sheathed elms brace

Beside crime-scene curbs.

A poet lies on the snow

And through her windshield

A poked red sun--

Inside her vehicle the headrest

Holds bloody aureole,

Here one venerable, was excised--

The outside sweep of freeze

Retains trajectory

Of Renee's tires turning

In considered arc,

Then instantly

Four shots--

Her last line re-calls

That's fine dude I'm not mad at you

Laura Stickney 2026

Notes:

images-- "The Massacre of the Innocents,

Pieter Breughel the younger, oil on panel.

Flemish recasting of the biblical story,

16th century

screen shot of news footage of 34th 

and Portland Avenue, Minneapolis,

January 7, 2026, 11:48 am, CST.

aureole--a circle

venerable--honorable, respected