It's melting helplessly,
the North Star.
Ten million, or even more,
tons every day
(ice, cold light, gas)
waste away from the frame
of this immense animal.
You will see,
if you look just over there,
how our team of conservators
keeps putting puffs of cotton
in the empty spaces.
But this won't be enough,
and within four centuries at most,
navigators will have
to blindly feel their way across the sea.
What responsibility!
The animal that costs us most,
and the one we can conserve the least.
Grade levels
7-9 / Sec. 1-3
10-12 / Sec. 4 & 5 / CEGEP 1
Contest Criteria
Bibliographical info
Nicolás Guillén, "The North Star" from The Great Zoo. English translation copyright © 2024 by Aaron Coleman. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.
Source: The Great Zoo (University of Chicago Press/Phoenix Poets Series, 2024)
