In Idaho, North Carolina, and Maine

they say that in winter, the pines start to glow.
I couldn’t say because I’ve never been
but I heard it just now on the radio.
The hail hits like pennies in downtown Tokyo.
They watch the whole thing on an LCD screen
and before the hail falls, the pixels start to glow.
In England they’re carting in ready-made snow
which they drop with a ‘thud’ on each village green.
Though miles away, I heard it. Just now on the radio
there was a skit with a gritter from Bendigo
who tells the seasons by a Jesus figurine;
he says that in winter, its robes start to glow.
In Lake Erie the trawlers found an embryo
frozen in the shallows. I pictured a pinto bean
when I heard the report on the radio.
3rd December 1944 – USS Cooper has a rough go
of it and sinks among the islands of the Philippines.
Sometimes, on the sea-bed, her transmitter still glows.
I heard its signal just now on the radio.

Ben Maier