Renee Nicole Good's Award-Winning Poem Resurfaces After ICE Shooting, 'On Learning To Dissect...'

The fatal shooting of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good has sparked nationwide outrage, fuelling a heated debate regarding authoritative accountability and the controversial raids of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). On January 7, 2026, the mother of three was shot and killed by an ICE agent, whose identity was later revealed as Jonathan Ross. Amid the national attention, a different part of Renee's story is breaking through the noise: the work she left behind, especially her award-winning poem.

Renee Nicole Good's award-winning poem resurfaces after her death

On her now-private Instagram account, Renee Nicole Good described herself as a “Poet and writer and wife and mom and shitty guitar strummer from Colorado; experiencing Minneapolis, MN.” Before the chaos, she was an artist rooted in writing, music, and family.

In 2020, she won an Academy of American Poets prize for her emotionally charged poem, On Learning to Dissect Fetal Pigs. The poem, published on poets.org, the official website of the Academy of American Poets Prize, wrestles with memory, science, faith, and vulnerability. An excerpt of the poem, penned under the name Renee Nicole Macklin, reads:

"...maybe there in-between my pancreas & large intestine is the piddly brook of my soul... now i can’t believe—that the bible and qur’an and bhagavad gita are sliding long hairs behind my ear like mom used to & exhaling from their mouths 'make room for wonder'— all my understanding dribbles down the chin onto the chest & is summarized as: life is merely / to ovum and sperm / and where those two meet / and how often and how well / and what dies there."

Read the full poem here.

Who was Renee Nicole Good?

Renee Nicole Good was a Minneapolis resident in the final year of her life, but she was originally from Colorado Springs, Colorado. A prized alumna of Old Dominion University, she studied creative writing and graduated in 2020. After her passing, the university released a statement, calling it "the loss of one of our own." The now-viral poem also earned Renee the ODU's undergraduate poetry prize, and judges had praised her work for moving "strand after strand" through memory and learning.

In her personal life, Good was a mother of three, sharing children with two former husbands, one who has chosen to remain anonymous to protect the children’s safety, and another who passed away in 2023. After moving to Minnesota, Good had been living with her three children and her current partner (wife), Rebecca Good.

After Renee's death, a GoFundMe campaign was set up to help her family cover the funeral costs and assist them financially. Although the initial goal was to raise USD 50,000, the fundraiser has already accumulated over USD 1.36 million, and the page remains active. 

Vice President JD Vance says an ICE agent shot Renee to defend himself

Amid citizens' mounting backlash against the authorities, JD Vance raised his voice in defence of the ICE agent during a White House press briefing on Thursday, January 8, 2026. Vance insisted that Renee was interfering with the ICE raid and trying to ram her vehicle into the officer when he acted in defense. Calling her a radical activist, the VP declared:

"Everybody who has been repeating the lie that this was some innocent woman who was out for a drive in Minneapolis when a law enforcement officer shot at her, you should be ashamed of yourselves, every single one of you... I can believe that her death is a tragedy while also recognizing that it's a tragedy of her own making, and a tragedy of the far-left who has marshaled an entire movement."

However, Good's family had a different narrative. Her ex-husband told The Associated Press that she had just dropped off their 6-year-old son at school and was returning home with her current partner when they encountered ICE agents.

As the investigation into her death continues, Renee Nicole Good’s resurfaced poem has drawn renewed attention to her work and highlighted her identity as a poet.

Read Next: ICE Agent, Jonathan Ross' Face Revealed? Are The 'Unmasked' Pictures Of The Officer Real Or AI?

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