The pores of the skin, wrote
One whose wool froze to him
As he tried to climb ice.
The seas laughed. They’ve known this
Since life and waste fired up
The first salt pumps from cells.
How much waste. So much waste.
Vast and waste. Life’s like that.
Life eats and eats and eats
And splits and splits and splits.
Food, waste, air, waste, heat, waste,
Ice. And what is life? Life
Is all the waves called life.
It’s a name. One of us,
We who make no waste, yet,
Who steal your breath, yet. We
Not yet quite sweat, just ice.
