The Iceman Cometh

Pressing onward
through unbreathable
crystallized air
- feeling in
most limbs
long disappeared

Lower digits
blackened, inside
thick snowboots
- gangrenous concerns
pushed to back
of numbed
consciousness

Team-spirit
the driving force
- the team
unfortunately
reduced by one -
interred in icy grave
with scant
frost-hurried
ceremony

Ultimate destination
still several
hundred miles away
but driven, like this
frozen, solid air,
forced by Arctic winds
into reluctant,
pneumonic lungs,
they trudge
northward


Thoughts of home
- wives, children,
parents, friends -
pushed to backs of
tired, demented minds
focused on the quest
to forge claim to
a barren wilderness
- for a country
and a world
who could not care less..


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This was written for an Allpoetry Contest "Moraine and Poganip", and won the Gold Trophy for first prize www.pjmurphypoems.blogspot.com