Underneath the Ice
I was down in the Antarctic
Taking soundings through the ice,
Working with a team of boffins,
Roger Cord and David Rice,
It was bleak out on the frozen scarp
I wore a heated suit,
And had thought to bring the oxygen,
They laughed - ‘The new recruit! '
They were tough as old shoe leather
Had been there since June the first,
And they scorned the winter weather,
Said ‘It's mild, will be soon be worse! '
So we took the caterpillar
Drove on out along the shelf,
There were signs of global warming,
I could see them for myself.
For the shelf had started parting
From the continent of ice,
With a chasm slowly forming
‘Fifty miles, ' said David Rice.
‘Fifty miles since June the seventh
When it started to appear,
It will break away completely
By the closing of the year! '
We began to take our soundings
Fifty metres from the edge,
We were getting steady readings
Of two miles or more in depth,
There was bedrock underneath us
Holding all this captive ice,
‘Can you hear that distant rumble,
Underneath, ' said David Rice.
I had wandered further over,
Listened keenly to the sound,
It was slowly getting louder
As I walked, just underground,
When the surface split and parted
Sent me reeling, wheeling in,
To a sudden forming chasm
With an ear-splitting din!
I dropped thirty feet or more and felt
My heart up in my mouth,
When a rush of water passed me
In a river, heading south,
And the ice that held me stable
[...] Read more
poem by David Lewis Paget
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
