by Rachael Carnes, USA
OWL
A glacier dies when it can’t move anymore. When it can’t accumulate size, shape, distance at a rate faster than it can lose.
They call it a death.
MOUSE
An extinction of that moment —
OWL
In their human lineage bottlenecks wipeouts flush and careening red — And gone.
MOUSE
Gone into warm days on the mountain?
OWL
Into heat. Wind. Flood. Fire — 100 rules and regulations rolled back.
You know what that means?
MOUSE
I might make a mistake — And become a meal.
OWL
Political din gurgles, hot molten nonsense, but up here — Between earth and sky, thousands of tiny cries.
MOUSE
Ice, living all these centuries,
Until one day, she leaves only her rocky cradle.
Clark Glacier, which crowned South Sister Mountain in Central Oregon for 7,500 years, was declared dead on October 18, 2020. Scientists held a funeral, as has become custom.
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