"instead of seals and walrus
it will be alcohol and drugs "
from Living on Earth, NPR documentary

A Downtown Seattle Street

and the Inuit
is drunk,
a foolish grin of apology on his face.
He has peed his pants -
dirty jeans rimed with vomit-
keeps sliding down the wall,
each time the EMT guys
try to pick him up .

Up at the Arctic circle
where the tribal homelands are
the arctic ice is thawing.
Animals and birds
for whom there is no Inuktitut name-
salmon, hornets, the barnowl and elk,-
advance north as the warming cycle
transforms tundra to forest .

They can no longer travel
the immense stretch of ice
that was the land beneath their feet.
Melting glaciers
become rivers of water,
whole coastal villages wiped out
house by house-
eroded permafrost
and burst sea walls.

Famished polar bears
are extending their range-
disappearing,
the ring seal is harder to find
and the people can no longer
live the old life of kayak and igloo,
keep the ancient comfort
of whale oil and furs-
the modest subsistence life,
perfectly adapted to sea and glacier

Remember Nanook and his son,
the sure stroke and the swift harpoon,
warm fur framing wide grins
splitting lips smeared with the blood
of seal liver eaten raw?
Now the boom of cracking ice
sounds a dirge for the dying life
and the Inuit goes south
to the city,
looking for work.