The Calving of a Berg
The Calving of a Berg
A line in the white
writes itself
across the tabula rasa
of the ice shelf.
Black lightning
of this Götterdämmerung
for emperor penguins, base-camps,
and coastal towns.
At the suture zones the cracks queue up.
They call this
a perfectly natural process.
Human impact?
The mainstream media feigns
impartiality with its lukewarm caveat
‘probably’.
The haruspices scrutinize the markings,
utter teatime-friendly soundbites.
Yet the Anthropocene awaits
no starting gun.
The tipping point passes –
buried beneath an avalanche
of white noise,
the muzak of the mall
lulling us into impulse purchases,
the streaming trivia
distracting us, reassuring us
that it’s business as usual,
so buy bye and
succumb to the Coriolis, baby
as a berg the size of Belgium
drifts our way.
Copyright (c) Kevan Manwaring 2021
Listen to me read the poem and others, alongside great poetry by Marie-Claire Wood, TAK Erzinger, Kevan Manwaring and Sarra Culleno – from Alternative Stories and Fake Realities. https://www.buzzsprout.com/411730/8567031-poems-from-marie-claire-wood-tak-erzinger-kevan-manwaring-and-sarra-culleno?play=true
Read about the melting of the Greenland icesheet here
