Pole Position

by Catherine Nicolson, UK

The polar bears I saw in the zoo
weren't as white as they might have been.
Their yellow trousers were embarrassing,
and the blue-painted concrete pool
had no-one, even the penguins, fooled.
 
Now on TV ice cliffs plunge away
into the sea as the white land dissolves.
Poles apart the bears are lost
where no one will think to feed them
iced buns against the rules.
 
The penguins are already dressed for the Titanic.
The white bears will follow with the floes,
each shrinking island in a widening sea.
Then we, on our own small islands of conviction,
will be swept at last by a wave of giant tears.