Spectators
It’s the coldest winter in 15 years,
TV’s weather guy tells, and cold
seems to have so many meanings.
I use this news to touch your face,
kiss your chilly nose. Our iPhone
app says its 45 but “feels like” 35.
We ask each other why the “feels
like” is never warmer. We’re Floridians
wearing socks, long-sleeved shirts,
hugging ourselves as the heater
kicks on. We open our front door,
stick our heads outside, giggling
with the gusts. We draw the door
closed and listen to the new Bruce
Springsteen song, wonder how cold
it is in the streets of Minneapolis.
It’s -4, the app proclaims. We don’t
bother to look at the “feels like.”
We’re guilty. They’re out fighting
for us, too. They don’t care how cold.
We’re in here, watching it all unfold
on TV. We stop laughing.
We’re dead
serious.
What Inspires You
I can’t pinpoint what inspires me. Keith Richards once said something like “songs are out there, they just have to find you.” I feel that way about writing. I can be reading something, and a certain word will hit me. Or listening to music. Or watching the news. I just hope the inspiration finds me. For this poem, it was a prompt from the Common’s Weekly Writes series, a prompt called “Sunnyside,” where we were supposed to write a prose poem in which an everyday moment gives clarity in our own lives. In revision, this moment, inspired by real-life events, became tercets. I’m surprised it took a turn for the political.
Bio
David Colodney is a poet living in Boynton Beach, Florida. He is the author of Gen X Redux, forthcoming in 2026 from Main Street Rag Publishing, and the chapbook Mimeograph (Finishing Line Press, 2020). A Best of the Net and four-time Pushcart nominee, his work has appeared in multiple journals. David currently serves as an associate editor of South Florida Poetry Journal and is an ardent supporter of Liverpool Football Club. If you are looking for him, he can often be found at the Lion & Eagle Pub watching Liverpool matches.
Find the Spring 2026 Issue HERE
Previous NPM 2026 poets
| April 1 | Amy Forstadt |
| April 2 | Annette Sisson |
| April 3 | Beth Kanell |
| April 4 | Bonnie Proudfoot |
| April 5 | Charles Stringer |
| April 6 | D. Dina Friedman |
| April 7 | David Colodney |