seagulls and sea lions scavenge
then there's a crack like a giant creaking gate
and the towering ice sheet collapses
ensuring the sea is briefly wild.
The people in the boat have mixed feelings:
this is some scoop, a photograph to behold
but tragedy in the land of the cold.
Nothing is permanent, "thing's fall apart,"
and next day all is tranquil again,
distant clouds like the ghost
of the mighty ice-cliff that's fallen.
Icebergs drift and the blue ice
has retreated but still far from finished
yet thousands of miles away on the shore
the water creeps up... Just a little more.