For Joe McMenimen

When the snow finally comes this year,
I collect each flake in a jar,
combing through the frozen varieties,
trying to find you.
Frantic not to lose a single one,
I collect the entirety of Maine’s precipitation.
After six years of each snow-covered morning and
your grumpy greeting,
there are only two things you must have become.
And so I search, waiting for your legs to emerge
from a single flake, your eyes to roll
because you are supposed to be resting
and I’ve annoyed you once again,
waiting for your half smile a gruff voice to say hello
before saying very good and leaving again.
But –
I am not sure you decided to visit during this storm.
It makes sense – you always liked to make an entrance.

Lynne Schmidt is the grandchild of a Holocaust survivor, and a mental health professional with a focus in trauma and healing. They are the winner of the 2021 The Poetry Question Chapbook Award for their collection, Sexytime, and 2020 New Women's Voices Contest for their chapbook, Dead Dog Poems (Finishing Line Press). Other chapbooks include Gravity (Nightingale and Sparrow Press) which was listed as one of the Best Breakup Books by Book Authority, and On Becoming a Role Model (Thirty West). In 2012 they started the project, AbortionChat, which aims to lessen the stigma around abortion. When given the choice, Lynne prefers the company of her dogs and one cat to humans.