Deep beneath the frozen mass,
the winter light a shallow sight,
the white walls, a stormy rhythm
the bones whales are at home.
they are sleek, monstrous, atavistic
their gut outside of time and space
inside them are small spectral seas
entire worlds and citadels.
the elongate and limpid heart-fish
finds a rumbling inside its belly
foothills with people digging too deep
fierce expatriates pushing ahead.
at once, the bone whale scorches its insides
shimmering with heat, people extinct
succumbing, perplexed
at their starship igniting.