When I was a child it was the ice man
Cometh, several times a week, a flatbed
Truck with a huge block of ice covered
By a canvas tarp. That was then. He was
An anachronism on the verge of becoming
Extinct parallel to the demise of ice boxes.
Refrigerators in the home would keep
Things cool. No ice picks chipping chunks
To haul from the street. Funny thing ice,
Solid as it is–as it seems, drip by drip,
It melts, dissipating even as we are
Anticipating its evaporation becoming mist
That will hardly be missed. On the other
Hand, ice on the street is very dangerous.