Who Remembers

Driving yesterday and listening to radio news, the story “Climate Groups Retool Argument For Global Warming” encouraged me to post this poem in progress. It’s fresh from Black Friday as I pondered several threads, including how the walrus soon may officially become an endangered species . What thoughts, questions, and suggestions do you have about the poem? What reflections does the poem stir from your perspective? I look forward to your responses.

Who Remembers

Browsing cards of
snow laden limbs and
cardinals in pines

each design drawn
by hand

I hear people praise
our unseasonable warmth

…..I say
…..It is no good

mindful of Arctic melt
glacial homes lost to polar bears

White fur eclipses
my loss as
freeze arrives late

I watch snowflakes
and wonder
where are you
who holds you

a stranger who knows not
your origins
as I know not your present

…..Snow falls
…..gently

Mourning my fountain pen
on Black Friday
strange name like

Good Friday
but what is good
about crucifixion

I ask Mom how long
she remembers this
holiday of consumption

since her memory is
longer than mine

…..She says
…..Born in your lifetime

A discounted substitute may do
for tubes waiting
to be stuck and

ink to flow but
will not assuage loss
I take an inventory

difficult and necessary
of subsequent outcomes
netting how

…..quantity and quality
…..matter

At northern fall equinox
scientists count fewer pups
theorize how walrus mothers

may lose track on land
rather than on glaciers
where their species nest and birth

At northern winter solstice
experts intend to assess whether the walrus
is endangered

like the polar bear
like the glaciers
like the peoples of these lands

…..like the memory of humans
…..when we lose track