Icebergs

It was at Vatnajökull

I first saw you frolic, enthralled:

Element met own element.

Glacier's spawn, seed corn

Of Shetland's winter, sailed

Graceful to the sea.

Though midsummer, the air

Clacked, clawed the throat, ears

Yelped "attention, muffler, scarf";

And you loved it, cheeks red,

Eyes sparkling with disbelief:

Home after long pain.

In the aftermath of death

You saw the cycle's completion

As ultimate gelid cold calved,

Weather-licked into shape,

Sharded. It owed all to little warmth.

Melted, fish gulped it that weeks later

Perhaps you scraped and gutted.

Black sand beach crunched -

Milled mountain, spewn volcano

That ice chomped and spat back -

And set out the parameters:

Bribie's opposite.

Downriver, slivers wallowed

Poised on the point where blue meets white

And green,

Cruising to their next port of call

and salt's unbinding.

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