The Arctic Wolves Are Howling

Arctic Wolf 

The Arctic wolves are howling,

the polar bears floundering from floe to floe,
their big feet trying to gain purchase on a
disintegrating edge.
Can you hear all is not well
with the land?

Skinny and exhausted, the big white bears swim
in search of survival, in a melting landscape.
As they tire and weaken, their heads
slowly sink below the surface of the sea.
Can you see their defeated eyes looking at us,
asking us why we are vanishing
the ice that holds the earth together,
pole to pole?

The G-8 talk and talk and talk,
deadlines for reduced emissions
a comfortable decade away,
buying time when there is no time.
What is the sound of the tundra thawing?

In the summer heat, across time and space,
can you hear the wolves' mournful song,
as the Arctic, drop by drop, iceberg
by iceberg, slowly dissolves
into the sea?