A Classically Bona Fide Striving

" A Classically Bona Fide Striving "

by Suzán Jiván

I

Man minds
his sleeping grandchild
after midnight
while dreaming of pack ice
shrinking
like retreating white-winged
endangered species

II

Forced to breed in captivity
in quarantine
hitchhiking on nursery trees

III

Stored in igloos made of concrete
covered
by stone-eating microbes
blighted
by fungi and lichens

IV

Along
landlocked highways
less and less reliable
at different times
with heavy and light rains
falling in varying places

V

Fractured into factions of attack
unmarked and unmapped
in a monotony of gravel
parsed by tangents
on a sliding scale

VI

Nudged here and there
without looking back
at sniffing animals
wearing artifice as armor

VII

Stabbing fingers skyward
as a classically bona fide striving
in a rapt exercise
with a passive statuette
in prickly defense
of morbidity
in pivotal trophies

VIII

Proudly pointing out the rapture
of song and dance
with a contrarian maverick
from the prevailing
underclass
with gross misunderstandings
praised
as an idyllic cast...