Lesson at the Checkpoint | wisconsinacademy.org
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Lesson at the Checkpoint

First-place 2015 Poetry Contest Winner

Please be advised that snow globes
 are not allowed through the security check point.
                                                           —LaGuardia Airport sign

Is this because of the snow? Or because of the little houses
that nestle inside the snow?

I imagine it is because of the liquid
and the potential to inject an explosive

through the dome of the glass. Evil is inserted every day
into our minds, under our skin, through the iCloud,

through layers of data that shred the ozone
(an ozone held together by scotch tape, chicken wire

and American Idol.) One day, someone picks us up,
shakes us, and all hell breaks loose. Worlds collide.

The very equilibrium we once believed in,
cast aside by a wave of the hand. While some God,

somewhere, waits at a check point, watching
for the terrorist in each of us,

wary of small things, like six ounce jars
of olive spread, beard trimming scissors, and yes,

snow globes. These things tucked in between the socks
and underwear, waiting to destroy us.

Contributors

On June 15, 2020, Lisa Vihos was named by the mayor of Sheboygan as the city’s first poet laureate. Lisa has received two Pushcart Prize nominations and several awards from the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets and the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters.

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