SandScript 2021

ICE CANNOT BE
UNMELTED
Michele Worthington
At first, we tinkered
and diverted the flow
of the Tigris
to irrigate rice
Just rearrange the stones
and it is undone
back to the beginning
But slight footprints in mud
can be traced, millennia later
and microbial stowaways
in bilges of ships
can undo the drift
of tectonic plates
in a day and a night
A small campfire
compared to a volcano
is inconsequential
but the conversation around it
builds temples to goddesses
and eventually
a hydroelectric dam
across the Nile
Digging for coal by shovel
has no earthquake Richter
and diatoms ignited
are measured in magnitudes
of parts per million
but inevitably
the heat exceeds
in Fahrenheit degrees
what can be weighted
One mammal alone
from the cut forest
is not missed by the tigress
but its tiny internal biome
finds a preordained
eternal home
all around the globe
Our disaster is not so bad
compared to that asteroid
but history cannot be undrowned
and nothing can be put back
by moving stones
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