This country once,
to some or perhaps most,
looked solid and white from above,

much like a blank paper, perhaps like
the back of a page in a history
text book or the back of a facsimile
of a foundational document,

or most of all, like a sea of deadly cold
covered by an ice pack.

When the Captains of Industry
and Control finally decided 
it had gone on long enough and
brought in an Icebreaker,
when they finally chose to lose the illusion
and let everyone in on the open secret,
when they decided they simply
didn’t care anymore about hiding the truth,
started breaking the ice wide enough apart
to make their greed work less difficult
and thus made it so folks could see
deep cold ocean beneath,
killer ocean that had always been there,

it staggered those
who’d been fighting drowning all their lives
while stuffed below the ice forever and a day

to see how the broken floes
who’d thought they were solid and safe
gave up their volition and sense
to get behind the Icebreaker itself
as it portrayed itself as
a savior of the great white pack,
who thought they’d make it when the ship
got through and showed
how thin the ice had always been,

how the solidity had been fragile from the start
and the fact that it hid the cruel sea under it
was the only reason it had been allowed
to last as long as it had.