“Love in the age of dying icebergs” a poem by Jessica Clark

I wonder if we will love as we have

always loved, as geologic structures

slip into the sea

solidity crumbling, islands swallowed

by the sea.

There are peaks and valleys,

whole mountain ranges on the verge

of eruption just beneath our feet,

from the pressure of fracking.

What’s the word Sarah asked

earthen parabolas

Where are we going?

is the puddle warning the sidewalk of the depth

it will soon face?

squishy worm bodies splayed out

on the sidewalk

this city & all cities, and unmarked cemetery

with layers of dessication & encroachment.

How can we make promises when the polar vortex

turns our skeletons to icicles?

chattering teeth.

How can we make promises when the rain doesn’t fall?

What will grow in the record heat?

What will grow in our hearts?

this f*&*& world.

I dreamt I became sour milky crustacean clacking

frantically with my crustacean friends,

searching for water and thirst became universal

and we remembered wildness, the wild thirst gang

and no one sent water and no one clacked down at

us pitifully

and no on sent water

and that is the way it is

to be in the hands of the gods