The Thwaites Glacier After the Ice Shelf Collapses

Thwaites is a drunken ice giant
sprawled up the slope of a continent,
his heels braced on the seabed.

He bites his nails and spits parings
out to sea, ship-killers the size of cities.
His white flanks sweat and steam.

Warm water circulates under his bed.

Thwaites is feverish and shrunken,
feet floating free, like a child’s
in a chair made for grownups.

Thwaites loses his grip and begins to slide
downslope into the sea. Ancient shorelines,
old Poseidon’s bathtub rings on earth

sink from sight. Thwaites disappears,
but first, dismemberment, white limbs
drifting in the ocean’s grasp.

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