Icebreakers
Houston, TX
2022, Senior, Poetry & Spoken Word
When camp counselor Susan
says it’s my turn
to introduce myself, I say:
Howdy y’all, I’m Texan,
born and raised,
but I still can’t bear
the heat.
Summer time is filled
with shower time
to wipe away
the day’s
sweat.
And we may be known
for Southern Hospitality,
but that doesn’t mean
we’re immune
to awkward social interactions.
When introducing ourselves,
leaders still force us
to use icebreakers.
Susan grinds her teeth—
she’s not getting paid enough
to deal with angsty teenagers—
and forces a bright smile.
Thank you, she says,
and calls on a sunburnt kid
to go next,
but I’m not done.
Just because I complained
about the icebreaker
doesn’t mean I won’t do it.
The question is:
If you were an animal,
which animal would you be?
That’s a popular one.
It even has different variations.
If you could shapeshift into an animal,
which one would you be?
What’s your spirit animal?
Truthfully, I’d choose a bird
so I could fly
up, up & away,
to not have the earth
so close.
But I want to mess
with Susan, so I say:
A polar bear!
And with my response, the tension
in the room breaks.
We all become best friends.
How could ice possibly exist
between us strangers at camp,
when it’s this hot
during the summer?
Now addressing my besties,
I tell them
I chose a polar bear
because they have an up-close view
of real ice breaking,
of glaciers sweating,
of a world becoming inhospitable.
Don’t you wonder
what it would be like to be one?
Born then razed
by something beyond your control?
Susan, wouldn’t you want to be a polar bear?
Why choose a koala?
Why look like an Einstein marsupial
when you could be a real genius?
And by real genius, I mean
it’s a real fact
that the ursus genus
is vulnerable,
and that the bears that are a part of it
hate icebreakers
almost
as much as I do.
The thought of no bears left
is almost unbearable, isn’t it?
Susan sips loudly
from her iced caramel macchiato.
She has to finish it
before the ice melts,
or else it will ruin
her drink’s perfect balance
of bitter and sweet.
I sit down.
The kid who needs
some aloe vera
introduces himself as Adam.
The group moves on,
brushes over the weird
kid’s speech.
It’s so easy to brush over.
Reflection
Reflection
I’ve always felt more attuned to the global warming aspect of climate change than most people because I live in an infamously hot state—people walk around in shorts on Christmas! An aspect of climate change that scares me is the rising sea levels, and an aspect that saddens me is the extinction of species. In this poem, I decided to use the facilitation exercise of “icebreakers” to connect my personal experiences in Texas with my concerns about melting ice caps and polar bears. I learned that melting ice caps seems like one issue, but that it is part of a chain of issues. I take on a persona in the poem and create other characters to echo the storytelling aspect of stand-up comedy. When I let myself lean into the jokes, I found the writing to be more honest. The humor actually underscored the seriousness of the matter. I also use the character Susan to demonstrate how people can easily dismiss or “brush over” climate change. At the end of the poem, she ignores me and drinks her coffee before the ice can melt, not realizing the irony in her actions. I hope this poem brings more attention to how easy it is for us to ignore what so greatly affects other species, and that it encourages people to be more aware of their actions and reactions to climate change.