In the fractal gaze of the Arctic thaw

Another ice shelf crumbles

The remains of a glacier’s shattered limbs

Collapsing down a slippery slope

Purity dissipating like a fleeting memory

As white reluctantly yields to parched brown

Clinging to the last remnants of ice
with outstretched claws

The polar bears were the first to drown

Weary white specters inseparable
from the snow.

Resigning themselves to the current

Hope always slipping

Another mile away

With truth shielded by thinning drifts of snow

Sweet oblivion becomes as elusive as rare drops of water

Escaping into the salty sea

Yet all we see is just the bare tip of the iceberg

Wistfully melting away

Just below the facade of the shimmering mirror

Where the blue of the sky kisses the blue
of the sea

Lies another teeming world

Covertly silenced by an unseen fever

As the toxic fumes of our ever-burning flames

Spew venom into unsuspecting realms
of effervescence.

Gone are the tangled forests of sea grass

The darting frenzy of flashing fish

Choked by inexorable heat

Smothering out every pocket of air

And leaving desolate ghost-towns

A reminder of past perfection

Taken for granted

And the jeweled coral adorning
the ocean floor

Surrenders its color to the pale veil of death

Fragile, blooming gardens suffocating

Vibrant vitality snuffed by scorching acid

Leaving graves of bleached, hollow skeletons

The sand in the hourglass slips away

Buried by a relentless wave

Lapping at our toes

Pleading for redemption from our sins

As it swallows the shore

And another island sinks in the rising tide

Still, we cast the blame on nature’s fickle mood swings

In our fruitless quest for fool’s gold

Another day, another inch higher, another thousand fish departed

As our fires spread with unquenchable thirst

Setting even the defiant water ablaze

Until we join the polar bears

Floating fish

Coral corpses

Dying of thirst

With saltwater filling up our lungs

To drown in the silent sea.