A Knock in Winter

A News Response Poem

A trailer in the desert.
Thin metal walls
breathing heat back into the night.

Dry air.
Brown sand pressing up
against the steps.

A boy there,
far from where he started.
Far from snow.

Back home,
the Midwest holds winter.
Drifts scattered by the road.
Cornfields asleep under white.

A porch light burning
against the cold.

At eight in the evening
two figures walk up the drive,
an officer
and a chaplain.
Boots pressing
into the snow.

Inside
a mother straightens something
on the kitchen counter.
A father looks up
at the sound of tires.

Empty fields stretch out behind them,
silent rows
waiting for spring.

In the desert.
the trailer is gone.
Erased 
in a sudden crack of violence
no one can fully explain.

Neighbors will argue later
about a concept.
A flag.
A cause.
A victory.

But in our town,
the knock lands softly
against a winter door.

And the cornfields
hold the sound
of a mother’s breath
leaving her
like wind
moving across snow.

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On March 1, two Iowa residents were killed in an attack by Iran on a facility being used by the Des Moines-based 103rd Expeditionary Sustainment Command. A former West Des Moines resident is believed to be among the six total dead. The fallen soldiers will return to the US, arriving at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Saturday.

https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/local/waukee/2026/03/05/iowa-soldiers-killed-iran-war-jeffrey-obrien-declan-coady-kuwait/88990621007/

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/fallen-iowa-soldiers-return-u-005019840.html

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