Ice (August)

Recently in a dream I looked behind to see Trump following me in a snowstorm. A round hole opened in the ice, into which he dropped without trace. This is not how I meet the Queen in dreams, reason to believe dreams are wish fulfillment. Last night I heard about school Geography. Next term is climate change. Because the melting ice in Greenland is not there to reflect the sun, the ground absorbs more heat, adding to temperature increases. Where will cities go when the sea rises? Are they asking, who photograph their ice-cream for their online friends, before absorbing?

Ice (August)

Practising writing was a daily exercise. The teacher drew an ice block on the blackboard. This is how we remember ‘practice’ the noun. Ice is a noun. The cubical drawing had black sides. The verb ‘practise’ has is in it. It’s a verb. This is how we spent August in Year Six. Nicholas Hudson (‘Modern Australian Usage’) told the Johnson Society we should decide on one use and keep to it. He gave the impression he was an ice man, simple black-and-white. Practice continues divided, with only Americans blurring what is is and what is not is. Or not caring.

Ice (January)

Mercury is usually golden, Venus turquoise. Earth, though itself brown, is blessedly called the blue planet or green planet. Mars, red. Jupiter is big and yellow, Saturn big and hula-hooped. Neptune and Uranus are traditionally greenish-blue. Pluto is still sort of black even after it stopped being a planet. This January astronomers have discovered Planet Nine, though they cannot see it yet. Centuries peering through their jolly telescopes and they’ve never seen this planet. Weird, really. What’s the colour of a planet you cannot see? Is this a Christmas cracker? Maybe, so far from the sun, it’s colourless. Ice-white? Ice-black?