the pilgrimage
nicole marino
I finally saw the glaciers
after hearing about the melting for years.
I was surprised
that in the time it took me to arrive
they weren’t already gone
basalt black crusted
with newly scraped mountainsides
blanket covering: protection from the sun
the ice dripped
and the lagoon crept closer
but praise the water
water we know, thank god
has never been touched by
andrew jackson, benedict arnold,
not a single swif of industrial smoke.
it came from a time of quiet.
when it was solid, that stream
never heard the airplanes
that would eventually carry me
here
I’ve spent years
buried in books
burdened by the keeling curve
kneeling to the knowledge
of ocean rise, acidification,
unpredictable patterns
pausing only to pray
I knew that climate change was whipped
in an endless whirl of connections
cause and effect and cause
and catastrophe.
But to us, the environmentalists
(dreamers, data scryers, concerned criers)
the glaciers were the beacon
they are the pinnacle of the whole world
perched on top
and running down
data landscape (above) photos by Bradley Sachs compilation by Nicole Marino
