Arctic Episode – a poem

Arctic Episode

© Christoffer Petersen, 2021

Beneath the splintered crate
Mouse tracks, maybe lemmings–
Fast frozen scat, four legs
Wandering the hushed world.
Sidestep to the canvas,
Nibbles through the bedrolls,
More evidence–teeth, claws,
Sporing Arctic journeys.

Ours was a long journey,
Across oceans, bumping
Bits of bergs with our bows,
Scoring paint with ice spears,
Holding our breath behind
Blistered and cold-creased lips.
We gripped the railings, skin
Seized in cold metal clutch.

Once on land the ink froze,
Lead smeared wet notepaper,
Thwarting record keeping,
Until, observing land,
Between staking, pitching
Our heavy canvas tent,
The naked eye absorbed
All that ink omitted.

And, inside mildewed walls,
Settled but unsettled
For savage words of storm,
There –the soft scurry of
Ghost feet, pattern-pawing
The dirt beneath the crate,
Sharing our shelter in
The fabled land of north.