Pebbling
Smooth and mosaic are the pebbles that
brush-tailed penguins give to their
mate. In the searing chill of Antarctica,
where tears become thorned beads
peeking off one’s eyelashes, gifts
of umber and azure become a hearth
for forlorn creatures denied the
loamy abode of sun-caught woods.
In their circlets of stone they huddle
around their eggs, the pearls lining
a diadem of color. This, a cobbled
flowerbed at the edge of the world.