Ice, akin to smooth and rounded pebbles on the bottom of a stream. Coating everything like candy shells, simple to break and lovely to dissolve on the tongue. Blowing sloppy kisses, wet fingers stick to frozen railings, the incline too steep to climb without reaching for the guard rails. Would that we could race backwards in time, crush the ice cubes of the future with time travels and wild dreams.
Making gentle sounds in the still air, splitting the atoms with each crack and creak. Exploding inwards, taking with it all heat in the gazebo, the room outdoors. Breaths of this air sting, sharp and angular, stabbing ice pick wounds inside your nostrils, lungs, and heart.
What is the purpose of this entombing, what depth can be found beneath the frozen tundra? Thawing and refreezing in rhythms, like the planet inhaling life and exhaling despair. Standing still upon the solidified water, clear as day, revealing the distant lake bed that holds the secrets of our dead. Hope is as strong as the ice is old. Melting the ice is the same as remembering. Holding your breath is the same as dying. Were we once warm and safe?
An Ice Age is coming - one where the metaphorical definitions get blurred, foggy. An ocean of confusion and shame, we have the ostrich buried in the sand, its whole body and long legs covered with muck and mire. Earthquakes rumble when our subconscious stirs, the fear of waking up to this reality too soon, too quickly, too far gone to know we ever left.
When the dawn of a new age breaks the crest of the frozen waves, will the oceans flood the cities and towns, or will they just freeze us in our sleep? The shadows of history looming in the darkness, our footsteps taking worn paths through time, and time again. The wind sighing deeply, its belly laugh seemingly cynical and cyclical.
We are in a cattle squeeze, careful not to trample the child in front and the elder behind. What generation deserves a gift of sage smudges and tarot cards that only tell tales of mistakes long past. All of us, if you wish, and none of us, if you dare.
