The ocean warms,
water expands,
sea level rises.
Returning home from Antarctica,
I grappled with how to feel.
Changing our environments
for optimal human life
we change the balance of everything
everywhere else.
Circles and cycles
drive change from the South.
Our interconnections are complex.
Looking out from Antarctica
I saw everywhere else drawn in.
I stood on the edge of an ice age
and saw our past and future.
Grappling with drawing feelings out
I tore and bit like the numbing wind
grasping for signs of what others felt
for something clear to hold.
I had sensed my own internal form
reflected in the ice,
branched out, crystalline,
unknown edges touched.