A23a

——–All of these bergs are named, via a strict convention…when they fragment, the smaller bergs
——–produced are then named by letter, in the order in which they break off
——-—US National Ice Centre

Even Antarctica, in all her coldness,
must let go from time to time.
They call it ‘calving’ and I suppose
it is a kind of birth, as fissures crack
and ice unzips mirror cliffs.

At gulf-distance, how raw the itch
of ghostling limbs and organs?
Imagine your glistening breast
float before your eyes as you wake
from the surgery. Or your daughter

wearing a long, white silk dress
as she wades through rising waters
of the Weddell Sea. Hold your fear:
currents will take her, an ocean
vortex spin her, she’ll swim with orca,

cast off her pearls as she disappears.
Can she hear the ice-song of Antarctica—
white noise, an ulla-lulla slow refrain?
That’s the sound of a faraway mother
calling a child by her real name.