Mendenhall Glacier, Juneau, Alaska.
Kate Laster
Ice is unstable, unpredictable. A sheen of crystal can cause tires to spin out. The surface of a frozen lake can give way.
Family album. Mom, the Snow Queen’s kinder sister.
On a cold Pacific Northwest day, wind chill kicks up a notch and I am reminded of past winters and higher latitudes.
Writer Elkhound anticipating new snow fall.
j.laster
Today the Writer Elkhound’s keen eyes track crows half-flying, half-blown across the gray sky.
Family album. Delivery of ice to be melted for drinking water. Unalakleet, Alaska.
I recall the sea ice rolling along the chill shore of Unalakleet. My brother and I scampered up huge slabs of ice that rested on the pebble shore. Those chunks of ice resembled mammoth three dimensional puzzle pieces.
Family album.
Meeting in Deering
At the junction of Kotzebue Sound and the Inmachuk River
We walk along the curve of cold land,
our legs, hips, hands are like paddles
without water,
we traverse a rough shore comprised of frozen
pebbles, tide rumbles under the ice,
the mittens over my hands are like small
furred bodies,
we hold onto one another the way
two skiffs in summer, might gently
collide,
wind moans under eaves, trapped in
drainpipes too narrow
for the expansive cry,
visual incantations of the Northern Lights
roll over us,
a gym door opens and I hear the basketballs
thunking and tennis shoes squeaking,
we pass a caribou hide
staked out, shimmering with chromatic
house light,
the world springs leaks,
time is skin over deep water – and
there in the darkness we share,
are bubbles rising up
to slide along the underside of ice
as polished as slabs of dark glass –
signs of life.