Which Ice Melts Faster?

https://portside.org/2024-01-26/which-ice-melts-faster
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Author: Everett Cruz
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Dear Human at the Edge of Time

Which Ice Melts Faster?

By Everett Cruz

                                    The ones in our whiskey

or the ones at the poles? At the polls, we vote

to fix it, and when nobody does, they say to try

 

again. So, we scream because nobody tries,

and they tell us to vote again. We don’t think

they want to try. Again. They want us to think

they’ll try. They want us to chill, but the ice

is melting and flooding as the temperature rises.

We raise a glass to the world but in our whiskey,

the ice is melting. Disappearing like hope leaving

Pandora’s box, like hope leaving every ballot box.

Nothing gets fixed. We’re neutered as we wait. We feel

the weight of the world like Atlas. Staring at maps,

wondering what will be underwater, we’re wet

from sweat. We swear. We scream. They tell us

to vote, again, because they want us to be cool.

But the temperature rises, and our fires are burning.

Which ice melts faster? Again. Which ice melts faster?

Everett Cruz is a multicultural Filipino-American living and teaching in Denton, Texas. His writing has recently been published in Five South, Resurrection Magazine, the climate change anthology Dear Human at the Edge of Time, and is forthcoming in Quarter After Eight.


Source URL: https://portside.org/2024-01-26/which-ice-melts-faster