upon a time
the ice advanced
inexorably
the trees
retreated
southmost
step by
glacial lobe receded
downslope
ice tongue
end moraine
in a land without trees
build with bone
my hand in the dark
thigh-high snow
skin boat, quiet
my hand in the dark
thigh-high snow
swing saw
bade me
ice trade bade me
ice market bade me
gale-torn
pack ice
when the bush plane came
ice fog
oil the man said
leasing
wore
brand new
more, too
aching to be drilled
pipeline followed the road
floating city
horizon
awake at night
heat-joy in my bones
upin’ngakhaq
skim, newly formed
crack
between earth and
fluted by meltwater
I forded
o pilot our boat
floe edge
ceiling of ice, split
sun lit the sea
ice cellar filled with
water
wintering grounds still
snow-streaked
veins, blue-bleeding
fanned toward the sea
shore-fast ice. breaks mottled
open stretch
a road of water over darkness
ringed the island
a road of water over polar
a road of water over pull of the sun
a road of water over calved
ice sheets
shelf ice
sea ice
buckled
drift ice
anchor ice
bottom-fast
ice famine
rose
float
snowmobile
breakaway slab
in need of
my hand in the dark
hand
dark
heat-
joy in my
bones
drift
dream
when the first snow fell
it fell for you