There we stare at the sheer wall
of ice and giant shards breaking off,
crashing into the sea,
and they’re a deep
blue we hadn’t seen before, trance-like,
as authoritative voices in the background
remind us the bulk of mass exists
below our perception,
and even in the glacial present
we sense liquefaction beginning
so that, what is it that lasts?
What memories blast from
the inside and shape our course?
A sliver of ice connects us and evaporates,
fades, becomes forgotten,
erased,
until one day no one will believe
the world was covered by frozen
mountain ranges
or accept you and I were bound
by something we fabricated,
and the worn book you gave me
lies dormant, immense in its silence,
and we can think about God despite
our knowledge of tomorrow
and our emptiness, that what we cannot
claim beneath the surface
and, thus, lose
is bigger than anything that has
happened so far.
—
Paul Freidinger’s poems are published or forthcoming in After Hours, Atlanta Review, Basalt, Bayou Magazine, Big Muddy, Cold Mountain Review, Confrontation, Eclipse, Evansville Review, 580 Split, Folio, Florida Review, Grist, Isthmus, Kentucky Review, New Plains Review, New York Quarterly, Pacific Review, Potomac Review, Provo Canyon Review, Reunion: The Dallas Review, Santa Fe Literary Review, South Carolina Review, South Dakota Review, Still Point Arts Quarterly, Subprimal Poetry Art, and Triggerfish Critical Review.