Arctic Elegy

Her final breath fled towards Polaris and did not stop its wending journey until it had reached the frozen North Pole, where it instructed Earth’s winds to stream down the invisible longitudes like rain cascading over a rocky hill. In the snowy depths it was buried alongside the forgotten exhalations of millions. But the winds swept the planet softly, smoothing dusty places and ruffling the picked flowers set upon her coffin. The day was warm beside the breeze, complacent, and the suburban cemetery pushed forth its grass obediently, as if the Arctic gods were merely humans, like she had been.