Drift

I've been getting 

Midnight calls

From Robert Falcon Scott,

He and his comrades,

Edward and Birdie,

Died on race 

To South Pole,

Are frozen together

In their tent

And covered

By cross-topped cairn.

Captain Scott tells me

They've started to drift

Even more south,

The ancient ice

That was Antarctica's 

Pilasters,

Is vanishing...

As Scott speaks to me,

He holds precious

Fossil collected 

On Beardmore Glacier;

It's a Glossopteris sprig,

Tree of life from Gondwanaland,

When terrain was sylvan,

And continents locked together

As one.

Laura Stickney 2024

Notes:

Robert Falcon Scott, explorer 

and scientist, led the British

Antarctic expedition in November,

1911. Scott and his comrades--

Dr. Edward Wilson and Lieutenant

"Birdie" Bowers--died in their 

unsuccessful attempt to be the first 

country to plant a flag at the South Pole.

A Norwegian team led by Amundsen 

beat the English team by a month.

Scott, Wilson and Bowers died of 

exposure, starvation and exhaustion

on their way back from the South Pole

in March, 1912.

Glossopteris--Fossils of woody plants

estimated to be 300-200 million years

old. Found first by Robert Falcon Scott.

Gondwanaland-- Large landmass referred to as 

ancient supercontinent. Fossils of Glossopteris 

proved connections between various fragments

of Gondwanaland--S. America, Africa, India, Australia,

New Zealand and Antarctica.

sylvan-- Pertaining to or characteristic  of

woods or forest regions.

photograph of Glossopteris fossil-- Athena Review