the tundra is melting : the permafrost is slipping

………Ring-a-round a rosie,

its icy handcuffs : prisoners once confined now riot

……….A pocket full of posies,

for early release : bacteria by the billions : a gravid

………Ashes! Ashes!

fury : pestis unbound : southbound : bound for glory

………We all fall down.

all going is lost;
facades split incognito hearts
and silence becomes
the ladder that flees as
rivers divide tree-crusted banks
into landscapes of
water & earth and & earth again;

only currents touch the separation
with the intimacy of a circle
seeking to embrace its empty center