A crack in ice will join as well as rend.

In every ear that thinks it’s safe from harm,

The snap can clearly cause, or not, alarm.

But those who hear know how the world will end.

On lakes almost as big as tidal seas

The crack booms on into a moonlit night.

It takes a ball in cold and awful flight

To crack a lake like that and not appease.

Such rips in ice deploy the easy thought

Of dying warm and creviced in a bed.

But often with a light and practiced tread

I close on what the watery dead have taught

But stop too short the edge to catch the lore,

Become a coward tripping back to shore.