Dream in a Dream
Roslyn Heights, NY
2019, Senior, Poetry & Spoken Word
I wake to skies of blue in the north.
In this dream, where the edge of the
horizon kisses the frozen tundra
good morning every day, the light
fractures the icebergs out at sea and
creates a kaleidoscope of color,
bursting with life. Good morning, to
the penguins preening on their rocky
nests. Good morning, to the krill
tinging sea foam pink. Good morning,
the tern waves as it somersaults above.
Every cloud clears to reveal a stretch
of harmony spanning sea and sky.
I drift off to dreams of the sun, and
when I wake up, the skies are yellow.
The north is silent—the horizon
can’t kiss the tundra at sunrise when
it has disappeared. The entire ocean
stills at sea green, absent of pink krill
and icebergs to refract the morning
light. The penguins have long
abandoned their perches. A sharp
silence stretches across the day, as if
holding its breath for the shrill of the
tern, but it never calls. I sit at the
dawn of the desolate landscape and
wait for the dream to end. But I can’t
sleep when the world won’t fade back
to the past, not when it’s already too
far gone and beyond our saving.
Reflection
In this poem, I described an Antarctic landscape and all of the creatures and beauty living there. I wrote about the harmony of the ocean and the penguins, krill, and terns living there. In the second half of the poem, the narrator realizes that that landscape was a dream, and that the landscape has changed because the ice melted and the animals have suffered as a result of losing their habitats. Knowing that the effects of climate change are slowly but surely becoming more apparent, I fear that one day we will be unable to do anything to stop it, just like how the narrator is unable to go back to the dreamscape. The more I hear about how the changing climate threatens animal habitats, the more sympathy I feel for them. I created this piece to hopefully inspire the same feeling in others, and to help them realize that we must take action to help preserve our planet before it is too late.