Antarctica Anti-Pastoral

Pamilerin Jacob

NASA images show Antarctica getting greener as ice melts.

—Newsweek

Creeping without footfall, gangrene peels

the meadow’s white scalp to reveal green

dermis—lice-patch of liverworts and lichens.

Rebel moss bite into ice, gargling its ancient

ore. Who knew green could cause such

uproar? Water-casualty. Ice splintering like bone.

The statue has broken out of hypnosis.

Its pulse, thumping our shores. We hear it

like a distant drum. Its ancient laws heaving

towards us, desperate to be fulfilled. Soon,

living creatures in its air. Augury in the sway

of limbs and wing-flutter. The end of silence

is the beginning of apocalypse. See

how catastrophe mounts with every gas

pump, AI prompt, every market run.

The commandment of man is destruction.

PAMILERIN JACOB's poems have appeared in POETRY, Lolwe, The Rumpus, Agbowó, Palette, 20.35 Africa, & elsewhere. He is the Founding Editor of Poetry Column-NND, Poetry Sango-Ota, among others. Twitter: @pamilerinjacob