Beneath the ice, the world becomes a dream,
A frozen silence, sharp and pure and wide,
Where sunlight bends and fractures in the stream.
The men move slowly, tethered to the tide
Of storms that churn across the endless white,
Their courage tested by the cold inside.
Machines hum softly in the fading light,
Recording oceans frozen in their sleep,
A universe where dark and day unite.
The icebergs drift and secrets start to creep
Through fissures deep beneath the snowbound floor,
Where silence holds the land in solemn keep.
Each day is measured by the frozen roar,
By winds that bite and nights that never end,
Yet wonder grows behind the research door.
And when at last the sun begins to bend,
They rise from ice to find the world renewed,
A fleeting warmth, a season on the mend.