The Fat Man Eyes Greenland
Nowhere can we evade the clamor
of his craving to shovel in this
misnamed empire of snow and ice.
People pray once he has crammed his bleak
insides with an expanse of whiteness
he’ll be satisfied. But no, already
he’s scheming to claim the Northern Lights
so he can drape them over the nation
while his crimes get buried in permafrost.
He tucks a napkin under his chin
and bites into a calving glacier.
He’d probably finish it off if
it weren’t for the Inuit’s sled dogs,
who smell his trail of treachery and
refuse to be hitched to this heavy
two-legged chasing after his appetite.
Former NEA Fellow Donald Levering’s 16th poetry book, Breaking Down Familiar, was published by Main Street Rag Publishing. He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he volunteers as a U.S.. citizenship tutor and co-curates the HERE Gallery poetry reading series.
Header photo of Northern Lights over Greenland by Vadim_N, courtesy Shutterstock.
